The Vicarage,

                                                                                                  Higham Ferrers.

                                                                                                  April 2012

My dear Parishioners,

This past year has not been a good one for me, as most of you know. Pneumonia, pleurisy, renal failure, and a major operation and then a relapse earlier this year has meant that I have not been able to fulfil my role as Parish Priest of Higham Ferrers with Chelveston as efficiently as I would have liked and as some of you, I believe, have expected. In February I was able to spend a fortnight in Devon at the Sheldon Centre run by the Society of Mary & Martha. This Society is a well run lay led Community organised for those in ministry who need a complete break from parochial duties. There was no telephone or computer and I didn’t take my diary with me. Two weeks of complete solitude enabled me to work out priorities in my ministry and daily life.

In all of our lives the overcoming of difficulties depends on the critical working out of our priorities. Sometimes these priorities don’t matter so much but there are those times when our list of priorities can change the direction of our lives or our relationships and they matter a great deal. For the Scots and members of the SNP the priority may be independence from Westminster; for our Prime Minister it might be recovering from the disastrous debt Great Britian has got itself into. So everything else must work towards those aims. Priorities differ and that can lead to argument & dissension. If everyone’s priorities were the same we would no doubt be able to live more in harmony & peace.

Our Christian Faith should matter to us a great deal but most of us prioritise what we believe. Do we think the Beatitudes are the most important part of Christianity, or is it trying to keep the 10 Commandments, or perhaps working out the meaning behind the parables of Jesus and living according to that? For others Christianity is just something for children to accept and so a religious annex to Christmas and an importance merely attached to the birth of a little baby.

Now there is nothing wrong in believing in these and indeed the Christian Faith’s building blocks depends on these. Yet the New Testament writers are quite sure what it was that took priority over any other belief and made Christianity essential in their eyes for life itself.

Over a quarter of each of the 4 Gospels relate to the last week of Jesus’ life, leading from the increased aggravation felt by the religious authorities and the triumphant arrival of the Messiah on a donkey through the last meal Jesus had with his disciples & the institution of the Mass or Eucharist to the Death of Jesus on the cross and ultimate Resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ birth, life, teachings, parables, healings & sayings all pointed to & culminated in his Death & Resurrection.

For the early Church, then, what made a Christian was a belief in the sacrificial Death of Jesus and his Resurrection. These were the facts upon which the Christian Faith depended. They were given priority in any teaching & learning or understanding of Jesus.

How the Resurrection occurred was not a priority, funnily enough. The Scriptural references all point to something mighty happening, the empty tomb, the strange appearances of Jesus, the fear of those who first understood what had happened. But what mattered most was that the person they had seen and socialised with and listened to was no longer limited by time and space. Jesus was everywhere and yet also could be in one particular place. He could influence individuals, communities, churches, nations & indeed the whole world at the same time. This was something so stupendous they found it difficult to explain. So what they concentrated on was not the ‘how’ of the Resurrection but the ‘who’ and therefore the consequences of the Resurrection. This was their priority in explaining the Christian Faith.

‘Seek ye first the kingdom of God & his righteousness and all these things will be added unto you.’ This verse from Matthew 6:33, and made into a well known worship song, urges us to get our priorities right. The things of the Spirit before the things of the flesh. That’s where belief in the Resurrection leads us.

So let us all make sure we get our priorities right – in our Christian Faith & in our daily lives. May the Spirit of the Risen Christ help us in this endeavour.

With every Blessing for Holy Week & Easter,

Your Priest & Friend,

Fr. Grant

P.S.  I have been very grateful for the care and support both parishes have received from Fr Roy & Fr Roger and latterly from Fr Paul back from Spain and I am well aware that you have all been cared for by their ministry and also the stirling work of the churchwardens in both parishes & especially Anna. They have kept everything humming and it was a great joy to be able to present Fr Roy with a gift from the parishes on his 80^th Birthday in March as a sign of our grateful thanks and affection. 

Notices

Annual Parochial Church Meetings:

1. St Mary’s, Higham Ferrers. Sunday 22^nd April at 12.45 a.m. at the conclusion of the Sung Mass. We will meet in the Bede House for Coffee that day too.
2. St John the Baptist’s, Chelveston. Sunday 29^th April at 10.00 a.m. at the conclusion of the Sung Mass. We will meet in the Church.

By the time you read this Magazine, notices regarding inclusion on Electoral Rolls and nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be available in both churches.