NEWSLETTER

March 2002 From the Revd. Hugh Trenchard, Vicar. Dear Friends, Welcome to Spring! Even after all that rain and dismal mist, every thing in the garden, the hedgerows and the woods erupting into life with that gentle but irresistible power, must raise the spirits and offer the challenge of responding to that vision of new and renewed life. Perhaps we shall leave the final celebration of winter to those intrepid bodies who throw themselves, literally, on or down the ice and snow of Lake Placid. Mind you, there are some strange activities at these winter games. Who in their right mind, willingly, jumps off a mountain - without either ski poles or at least a parachute! How do you train for the luge? Is it really true that you train in bed, flat on your back with a periodic horror film to simulate the terror of 70 m.p.h. down hill on a tea tray? On a more serious note - it is the very crazy nature of such competitions that reveal the essential nature of the Olympic way of living. To rise to the challenge of this world and its limitations, and to do so with a spirit which values every genuine attempt in an arena where race, colour and creed are set aside. In one way that is what the Church meant Lent to be about. How do we set some time aside to prepare for a particular meeting - the meeting with the risen Jesus. It is so easy, as some love to say, to maintain that we can meet this Jesus every single day of our lives. That can indeed be true but it is also only too easy to meet the Jesus we want to meet rather than the Living and challenging Jesus who confronts us through Good Friday and on Easter Day. The Easter Jesus is no quick fix for our failings. Rather, He lives to make us question just how in fact we live. Remember the story of the Pharisee and the innkeeper in the Temple. The one was so pleased with his performance, - he was a "nice guy". brHe did give to the poor and to the Temple and he loved to make a show of praying in public, and he delighted to tell God his news as if God were blind or deaf or plain thick. The other, the innkeeper, had little to say. He, too, was a good man, but when faced with God' s goodness he recognised something about himself which would re-make his future and draw him both closer to God and to his fellow country-people. "God, pardon me for I sit in judgement on too many people! When they ask for credit I make judgements which are loaded against the poor. Like my cleaner who only wanted a reasonable spread for her son's barmitzpha and I wouldn't wait for her to repayme and so said no!" This pre-Easter time we miss out on at our peril. Let Him challenge you to the very root of your being and grow through the experience. The other day I was talking to someone who said, "Well, you and your wife have had enough bad experiences and bad health since you've been here - you don't deserve it." Their concern was more than evident but there is nothing about being protected if you follow Jesus Christ. Rather, just like His own experience, all He experienced sharpened His sensitivity to the feelings, the loneliness and the despairation endured by so many, and we in turn are simply asked through this season to review where our lives may reflect His burning compassion and love for the world He loves. With every good wish, Hugh Trenchard Vicar.