Branching Out Magazine
Letter From The Manse
Since beginning in circuit ministry I’ve always found this time of year a bit strange. We’ve had silly September (as I now lovingly call it) with all of its meetings, we’ve celebrated harvest and the world around us is slowly creeping towards autumn. I really do love this time of year, as the trees turn to the most amazing colours and I get to start wearing jumpers and scarves again! If you hadn’t already guessed, I love scarves! Yet in an undertone to the season we are in, is the definite looming of Christmas!
It feels so strange to be planning Christmas services and beginning to gather Advent and Christmas resources (I have so many things that I am so excited to share with you when we get to Christmas!) when really it is still only the beginning of autumn! People keep telling me ‘It will be Christmas soon’! I keep seeing on Facebook the number of weeks till Christmas and I know the shops have been trying to make us think about it since August, but it is only autumn! We’ve got quite a way to go yet!
Yet the one thing that has struck me this year as we celebrated harvest, is that traditionally gathering in the harvest was part of preparing for winter. I have really appreciated this as we celebrated, not in terms of farming, but in terms of supporting our local food bank prepare for the winter season. I have heard from 2 food banks this year, how harvest for them is like stocking up for the winter.
This year we thought about the theme of sharing during our harvest Variety Church, our activities and worship were shaped around exploring this theme and hearing again the challenge this poses to us. But I wanted to remind you that this is a challenge we are posed each day, not just as we celebrate harvest. Across the year, we still need to share our harvest with others, whether that is donating to the food bank, donating money to charities or sharing the harvest of our gifts, talents and time.
So as we start this journey of preparing for Christmas, what can you do to continue to share your harvest? We invited you during the harvest service to take an owl or a penguin to collect money to go towards buying Christmas food gifts for the food bank (please remember to bring your money boxes with you on the 18th December to our Nativity Service). But there are so many ways God calls us to share with others, imagine if one little boy’s packed lunch of 5 loaves and 2 fishes fed 5,000 people, what could our bit of sharing do?
God Bless, Katie.
Readings in the New Testament
We continue to read in Matthew. This time we start with Chapter 22.
Verse 1 to 10 is very similar in setting to the following parable, but is a separate one. The custom was for any great feast to be signalled in advance, without the date being known until much nearer the event. It was even possible for the final notice to be issued on the actual date itself, particularly with weddings, where the joke was for the groom to turn up unexpectedly to try and catch the bride out. When the date for this feast was finally decided on, the king sent out the final invitations and they were ignored. People just got on with their normal, everyday business. The only ones who seemed to take notice, beat the servants up.
Verse 7 seems to be an addition by the Gospel writer. Matthew was written about 80-90AD, just a few years after the destruction of the temple in 70AD, the temptation to put this in was probably just too much. The parable is really a description of human reality. People are just too busy to step aside from the ordinary everyday tasks which occupy their time and energy, the sadness is that they do not realise just what they are missing. In the story, a great feast and party. In real life, the joy and excitement of the experience of Jesus.
Verses 11 to 14 are a separate parable, the story of a man who turned up at a feast and was regarded as improperly dressed for the occasion. We all have standards of dress and usually we dress as appropriately as we are able when invited, or are visiting, or are at work. Not to do so may be regarded as insulting and often is so. The story harks back to stories told by the Jewish Rabbis.
In the first, the king gives out clothes for his followers to wear to a feast and tells them to do so, but not when the feast will be. The wise put on the clothes and wait by the door of the palace; the poor leave the clothes at home and when the feast is announced, run to change, but are too late for the feast. In the second story the king gives his followers royal robes. The wise store them carefully, the foolish wear them for work and every day. When the feast is called, the foolish are left out because they are so shabbily dressed. We can relate to this, in that we declare that a new life begins in Christ and that the challenge of the grace of God requires a person to be clothed in the clothes of purity, holiness and goodness. The old must be cast away. This is not about clothing that is worn, but about the person we become when we take up the new life in Christ.
The second story is not about the clothes we wear, such as to church or any other occasion, but it is about the spirit in which we present ourselves to God in those situations. I confess that I have attended many gatherings in an unsuitable frame of mind and often failed to gain much from being there. Happily, I have also been lifted by the meetings at which my spirit has been positive and open.
David.
Musical Notes!
On a recent holiday in the beautiful town of Oban on Scotland’s west coast, I went on an excursion to Mull and Iona on a lovely sunny day. Ferry from Oban to Mull, coach to Fionnphort, then ferry to Iona. Sounds simple and unexciting but not so! First the ferry – capacity 1000, plus lots of cars, lorries, vans, and coaches, to Craignure. Then a 37 mile coach ride over the lovely island of Mull on a mostly single track road with passing places, surrounded by woods, lochs, mountains and the occasional dwelling, to Fionnphort: another short ferry crossing brought us to the magical island of Iona with it’s world-famous Abbey. Why Iona? In 563AD an Irish priest, Columba, landed on Iona and set up a monastic settlement, where he lived for the rest of his life, dying in 597AD. His Christian influence was immense, spreading the Gospel from this tiny island to many parts of Scotland and beyond, even to England where years later St Aiden came to Northumberland and established the Monastery at Lindisfarne on Holy Island in 634AD.
So the message spread out like ripples on a pond. The original settlement and subsequent ones on Iona were attacked many times by Viking raiders and other marauding tribes over 2 or 3 centuries but the work continued. In the 13th century a substantial Benedictine Abbey was built. However, by the 19th century the Abbey appeared to be in ruins but in 1897 services and ceremonies to celebrate the 1300th anniversary of Columba’s death led to the restoration of the Abbey over many years until we see it complete today. The coming of steamship travel in the 1800’s saw many more visitors to Iona including in 1847 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert. Day trips to Staffa and Iona from Oban became very popular and nowadays, daily excursions see huge numbers of visitors. On the journey through Mull you come to the village of Bunessan – sound familiar? Of course, it’s the name of a well-known hymn tune. Set to several different poems it was made famous by Cat Stevens in his hit record ‘Morning has Broken’. We sang it recently in our Harvest sing-a-long to the words ‘Praise and Thanksgiving Father we offer’. Originally it was set to a Christmas hymn – ‘Child in the Manger’ which was a translation by Macbean of a Gaelic poem written by Mary MacDonald (1789-1872) who lived all her life on Mull. She was born in Ardtun which is near Bunessan – wow! Hope you got all that – there may be questions later.
John G.
Shoeboxes
Our Annual Shoebox Service will be held on Sunday 27th November at 10.30am. The service will be conducted by Joan B. There is a display in the porch showing some of the items which are suitable for the boxes. They include hat, scarf, mittens, toothbrush, toothpaste, writing and colouring materials, sweets (not chocolate) small toys, unfortunately no hand made toys, soap, face flannels, drawing and colouring books (no written text if possible) and other stationery items.
There are leaflets alongside the display which list the items which are permitted and not permitted for security reasons. All boxes are checked at the depot before dispatch.
There will be sets of hats, scarves and mittens on sale each Sunday after the morning service. The proceeds from these sales will be forwarded to the Shoebox depot to be used towards transport costs.
Should you require a decorated shoebox I have a supply. A donation of 40p per box is requested (to cover the cost of the box). I hope that you feel you can participate in this project. Boxes can be left in the outer office during the week commencing November 20th. If you have any questions or concerns about the project do not hesitate to contact me. I hope you will able to fill a shoebox and, if not, maybe you could supply some fillers. In anticipation of your gifts - MANY THANKS. Enid.
Cards For Good Causes
The charity Christmas card shop is now open in Chapel Walk, Monday to Saturday 10:15am-4:15pm. It's the “red shop” next door to the Cook Shop. There is a selection of cards from more than 40 different charities, many national and a number of local charities. There is also a wide selection of Christmas Goods, Advent Cards and Calendars.
I am in the shop all day on Tuesdays and you may see several familiar faces. There is a Day Manager and volunteers who work each day and they will be only too pleased to help you.If you are interested in becoming a volunteer or would like any further information do not hesitate to contact me.
Enid.
Marian Phyllis Neale
On Friday 17th June 2016, a statue to commemorate the work done by women working in the steel industry during both world wars was unveiled. It is sited just at the front of the City Hall in Barker’s Pool. My Mum (Marian Neale) along with 103 other survivors, was presented with a medallion to recognise their individual efforts. Marian worked at W.A. Tyzack as an agricultural implement grinder. This was a “protected trade” as obviously agriculture was as important as munitions at that time.
Janet (Marian’s daughter).
Poor Old Sheffield Grinders
“In 1865, Dr. J. C. Hall of the Sheffield Public Hospital recorded that the average age of all living fork grinders was 29, scissor grinders 32, edge tool and wool shears grinders 33, and table knife grinders 35.” (from an article on the internet, “A history of grinder’s asthma” 2009, by M.P. Johnson). A few weeks ago two history professors were discussing on the radio, the history of the 1950’s and concluded that this decade was much more interesting than historians had previously thought. Those of us who were around at that time are probably not surprised at this conclusion. The professors agreed that the year 1950 was more like Victorian times and the year 1959 was more like the 21st century. How many households had televisions in 1950 and how many did not have them in 1959? Similarly with washing machines, central heating and fitted carpets etc.
The above quotation about the life expectancy of Sheffield grinders describes conditions of work that would not be tolerated in the late 20th century, never mind the 21st. Sheffield was ideally located for grinding knives, forks, scythes, needles and many other items because of the steel produced locally and the five rivers flowing through the area, the Don, Sheaf, Porter, Loxley and Rivelin which gave power to turn the grindstones. The buildings in which grinding took place were known as “wheels” and the grinders who worked there usually rented their work place, or troughs as they were called, from the owner of the building. The remains of many of these work places can still be seen around the Sheffield rivers. The Shepherd Wheel in the Porter valley has recently been restored for visitors.
Why was the grinder’s work so unhealthy? During the 19th century “dry grinding” became more common with some of the stone wheels turning towards the grinder. Consequently the grinder would inhale metal fragments and dust from the rotating wheel. Further processes followed to finish the products and this only added to the health problems. “In most cases the dust originally settled on the mucous membrane of the air passages, which explained the early symptoms of hoarseness, thickening and tenderness about the larynx and trachea, wheezing, a hoarse dry cough and tightness of the chest.” Doctor Holland 1843. Then it got worse!
“In 1794 there were 83 grinding wheels containing 1,415 troughs, employing 1,800 grinders.” (From M.P. Johnson’s article - yes Mick did spend a lot of time as a member of Wisewood Church). If you wish to read more of Mick’s article you can find it on: http://www.sheffieldhistory.co.uk/forums/index.php?/topic/7798-the-history-of-grinders39-asthma-in-sheffield/
Good old Victorian times? No, thank you. I would not like to be without my television, washing machine, central heating, fitted carpets etc. and certainly not without the NHS!
Ray.