Pew Sheet, Sunday, September 1st 2024. Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity / Creationtide 1
Today sees the start of the liturgical season of Creationtide which runs from the 1st of September to the 4th of October each year. The season encompasses our Harvest Festival celebrations which will be held on the 22nd of September at our services in St Laurence and St James’ churches, and slightly later, on the 13th of October in St Mary’s Addington. Between Sunday the 25th and the Feast of St Michael and All Angels on Sunday the 29th of September, we will once again be marking the Church’s ‘Generous Giving Week’ with special collections for mission and ministry in each of our parishes.
As many of you are aware, our sound system in St Laurence’s is rapidly failing, and the equipment we are currently using is long past its ‘use by’ date. I know that many of you struggle to hear what is being said from time to time as I do myself when I sit at the back of the church, and it is vital from our perspective that when the Gospel is preached, it is also heard! There is a particularly bad problem in the Chancel where the underpowered speakers, situated under the choir stalls means that when occupied, those using the choir stalls for the 8 o’clock BCP service, and the choir itself during the 9.30 service, cannot hear what is being said properly, even when using a microphone. This is especially important at the 8 o’clock service where many of that congregation have hearing problems by virtue of their age even when the microphones are used during the service.
In a similar vein and related to making the church building fully compliant with the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 after a visit by the diocesan disability advisor, we are also having to source handrails to assist those with mobility problems using the chancel steps, and for the steps leading to the memorial chapel. We are currently taking advice from our architect as to what the best options would be given the listed status of the building, and the need for something practical and safe whilst remaining aesthetically pleasing.
In St James’ two inspections of the organ since the beginning of the year and a visit by the diocesan organ advisor have confirmed that there is significant work to be done on the historic 1874 organ built by Thomas Atterton, a local organ builder. The advisor says that it is one of the finest examples of his work, and the lack of intrusive restorations make it a very important piece of the country’s musical heritage as it is still largely in its original state.
This does mean however, that it is quite challenging to play, and there is now an urgent need for some level of restoration work at the very least. We have now received some quotations for this work which, depending on the level of the repairs done vary from at least £1,000 for a very conservative restoration to almost £100,000 (with VAT) for a complete refit. There is some argument that we keep any work to a minimum to maintain as many of the original features as possible, but even this sum is quite significant for so small a congregation. We are now using the organ very sparingly on the advice of the diocesan advisor to prevent any further deterioration, but it would be good to restore it sufficiently so that it can be played whenever it is required as soon as possible.
In St Mary’s work is underway to prepare for important repairs to the external façade of the building to repoint the ancient brickwork and make good the repairs required by the church’s 5-yearly fabric review. All of our churches have significant need of maintenance to the guttering to prevent water ingress which is particularly bad in the vestries of both St Laurence’s and St James’ churches, and at St Laurence, we need to start fund-raising to pay for a ‘French drain’ (a covered soak-away) in order to stop water entering the crypt and boiler room which has caused significant damp problems in the north aisle and forced us to put some of the pews out of service because of damage to the floorboards and timbers underpinning them.
These are only some of the urgent projects we need to undertake in the next few years. Some are longer-term than others and will require serious fund-raising efforts not only from our congregations, but the communities we serve, as well as specialist grant awarding bodies. Others, especially those required under the Disability Discrimination Act to promote equal access (including the audibility of our services) are more manageable in the shorter term, but when combined, amount to significant financial outlays over the next 5-10 years just in order to maintain what we have and make good the damage of the past.
We will endeavour to keep you all up to date with each of these projects as they get underway, but we are hoping to start work on the audiovisual system and handrails in St Laurence’s before Christmas, and likewise the water ingress in the vestry of St James’ which is acute and very severe. If you are in a position to give a little extra by way of a donation for any of these projects (and I know that times are hard for many at present!) please do pray about how you might be able to assist. Alternatively, if you have the requisite skills to help out with fund-raising or buildings project management, please do speak to me or one of the church wardens this will make the workload much lighter, and there is too much for the churchwardens to manage on their own. Thank you so much!
Collect
God Almighty God,
whose only Son has opened for us
a new and living way into your presence:
give us pure hearts and steadfast wills
to worship you in spirit and in truth;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord,
who is alive and reigns with you,
in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
one God, now and for ever.
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it; but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you. You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’ For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children.
James 1:17-end
Every generous act of giving, with every perfect gift, is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change. In fulfilment of his own purpose he gave us birth by the word of truth, so that we would become a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
You must understand this, my beloved: let everyone be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger; for your anger does not produce God’s righteousness. Therefore rid yourselves of all sordidness and rank growth of wickedness, and welcome with meekness the implanted word that has the power to save your souls.
But be doers of the word, and not merely hearers who deceive themselves. For if any are hearers of the word and not doers, they are like those who look at themselves in a mirror; for they look at themselves, and on going away, immediately forget what they were like. But those who look into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and persevere, being not hearers who forget but doers who act—they will be blessed in their doing.
If any think they are religious, and do not bridle their tongues but deceive their hearts, their religion is worthless. Religion that is pure and undefiled before God, the Father, is this: to care for orphans and widows in their distress, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.
Mark 7:1-8; 14-15; 21-23
Now when the Pharisees and some of the scribes who had come from Jerusalem gathered around him, they noticed that some of his disciples were eating with defiled hands, that is, without washing them. (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they thoroughly wash their hands, thus observing the tradition of the elders; and they do not eat anything from the market unless they wash it; and there are also many other traditions that they observe, the washing of cups, pots, and bronze kettles.) So the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, ‘Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with defiled hands?’ He said to them, ‘Isaiah prophesied rightly about you hypocrites, as it is written,
“This people honours me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me;
in vain do they worship me, teaching human precepts as doctrines.”
You abandon the commandment of God and hold to human tradition.’
Then he called the crowd again and said to them, ‘Listen to me, all of you, and understand: there is nothing outside a person that by going in can defile, but the things that come out are what defile.’ For it is from within, from the human heart, that evil intentions come: fornication, theft, murder, adultery, avarice, wickedness, deceit, licentiousness, envy, slander, pride, folly. All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.’
Julian Prayer Group:
There is a change of date for next week’s Julian Prayer Group at St Mary’s in Addington which will now be at 8pm on WEDNESDAY 4th September.
Julian Prayer Group:
Please pray for the staff and pupils at our schools as they prepare for the new term, for their school governor’s and parent teacher associations.