Blessings from the Vicarage

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Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Last month, I appraised the present difficult world situation because if there is one thing that a Christian (and everyone actually) should continually be, it is realistic. Being realistic and living in the ‘truth of the now’ means that we can honestly and actively face our frailties and fragility of body, mind and spirit, and hopefully do something about them, in order to make life better for ourselves, for others and for the planet.

Lent, whose seasonal colour is purple (meaning humility and kingship reflecting the servant kingship of Christ) and which started this year on Ash Wednesday, 18th February, continues until Palm Sunday 29th March. It is a 40-day period wherein a humble assessment and healthy disciplining of self is to occur. Contrary to secular belief, it is not about giving up chocolate, biscuits, alcohol or other foodstuffs. Diana Butler Bass, author of ‘A Beautiful Year’, discusses the life changing insights that we can glean from tapping into the Christian year, and regarding Lent, notes that it is a time for us all to be realists – a time that ‘invites us to come to terms with our mortality…because it is a season about death’. Now before you all start to think that Rev Jane is being very morbid this month, read on…

I am conscious that, as I write this, I have just heard the very sad news that our Bishop, Andrew Watson, who came to conduct our confirmation service last year, has been diagnosed with inoperable pancreatic cancer with secondaries in the liver and spine. As he faces a difficult future and his own young death, he wrote in his letter to the clergy that he is looking forward to Easter and quoted Eugene Peterson,

“Every day, I put hope on the line. I don’t know one thing about the future, I don’t know what the next hour will hold. There may be sickness, accident, personal or world catastrophe. Before this day is over, I may have to deal with death, pain, loss, rejection… still despite my ignorance and surrounded by tinny optimists and cowardly pessimists, I say that God will accomplish his will, and I cheerfully persist in living in the hope that nothing will separate me from Christ’s love.”

…nothing will separate me from Christ’s love…

What does this mean and how can this help us face our frailties, fragility and even death(s)?

Last Sunday we sang a wonderful hymn called ‘It is well with my soul’, whose lyrics were written by Horatio G Stafford in 1873. Whilst travelling by ship (Ville du Havre) across the Atlantic, his four daughters drowned when an iron vessel collided with the ship, but thankfully his wife survived (he was unable to travel with them). When sailing to be with his grieving wife, the ship’s captain told Stafford they were passing over the place where his daughters died. At this place and inspired by God, he penned the words to the hymn, ‘It is well with my soul’, which remains a testament to finding peace despite tragic circumstances, grief and death.

‘When peace like a river, attendeth my way
When sorrows like sea billows roll
Whatever my lot, thou hast taught me to say
It is well, it is well, with my soul’

Spafford could write this because in faith he knew that he and all his family knew that nothing – not even the death of his beloved daughters - could separate them from Christ’s Love, because they knew that they lived in the Eternal Life and Love of God due to Jesus Christ’s death and resurrection. And because every year as Christians in Lent, Holy Week and Easter, we join with Jesus in his journey of faithful discipline, suffering, humiliation, violent death and joyous resurrection, we also know that nothing can separate us from Christ’s Love – the connecting energy of God. It is this that helps us cope with all the disciplining, sufferings, humiliations, deaths and resurrections in life, that we may live with love and hope, even through the final human gateway of death.

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It would be so wonderful if everyone received this comfort, confidence and peace from Christ, which is freely given. It would make such a positive change in the world. So, come along, join the Lenten journey and let us not be afraid to let things die in this life that are unhealthy for us, cause unhappiness to us and others or damage to the planet. Let us discipline ourselves this Lent and for all time, so that we too may be able to sing,

‘it is well with my soul…’

With love and prayers for you all,

Jane

PS Please pray for Bishop Andrew and his family, and all who are ill in body, mind and spirit.

PPS If you would like to find out more about the Christian faith and discuss the possibility of being baptised or confirmed this year, we will be having a service at 6pm on Sunday 4th October at St Mary’s Church. Please do contact Rev Jane as we will be starting our Alpha Course on 29th April and Christian learning will continue throughout the year. Contact alpha or vicar.

PPPS. If your child would like to become part of St Mary’s Junior choir to sing on Easter Sunday, please get in contact with Rev Jane asap. As we will be practicing every Friday at 4pm leading up to Easter day on 5th April.

PPPPS. For all newcomers who have moved into either Frensham or Dockenfield villages in the last 3 years (so from January 2023), we warmly invite you all to our ‘New Comer’s Welcome Evening’ from 6pm to 8.30pm on Friday 6th March 2026 in St Mary’s Church Hall. It will be an opportunity for you to meet other newbies, as well as to get more information and learn from various groups about things that happen in the villages throughout the year. Refreshments provided as well as toys for the children! Everyone is welcome!