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For our family, it’s been a year of tests! With one teenager taking ‘A’ Levels and another taking GCSE’s, I’ve learned how you and I can only do our best to encourage and inspire others to do well. As much as I wanted to make my teenagers revise (!), and be by their side whilst doing their exams, I couldn’t. It’s so hard to have to let them find their own motivation and their own way.  But with much prayer (and hard work), our son now attends Surrey University, and our daughter is at college. 

Encouraging and inspiring others works in the spiritual sense too. We can’t make others believe or trust in God; and there are choices and decisions people must make for themselves. Instead, to encourage and inspire others is to live with purpose and integrity. To do this, we need to be formed and reformed to be more like Jesus. Formation is an essential part of the training for ordination I have begun and will continue over the next three years. As much as the college will endeavour to form me through prescribed tasks, I am convinced God and the situations He leads me into will ultimately be key to my formation.  As the Bible puts it, we each are at the potter’s wheel:

‘“Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” So, I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him’.                                                                                                                                                                                    

Here, the metaphor speaks of God as the potter and you and I as the clay. The imagery emphasises Gods power to mould and shape us and be receptive to His will, much like clay responding to the potter’s hands.  

As you and I are formed and reformed at the potter’s wheel, then we begin to be in a position to encourage and inspire others. We may even be able to evoke an alternative consciousness (that is of the Kingdom of Heaven) against the dominant consciousness (that is of the world), to bring a newness to our own and others’ lives.  

Sending much love,

Rebecca

Rebecca is currently training for ordination

Dear friends,

I'm inspired to ask because of a little incident just now where I turned the cooker off as I served dinner and half the power sockets in the house tripped off! A swift meal whilst it was hot, a phone call with our electrician, and thankfully we are back on full power again, but it reminded me to reflect on the power that is given to us as Christians, to help us function well. The work of the Holy Spirit, the gift of God at Pentecost, exists to empower us for our service to Jesus in all the tasks of our daily lives. Without it, we stop functioning well, and we start to disconnect from those around us, unable to bring light into their lives, or to respond positively to whatever their light is showing us.

To be open to the work of the Holy Spirit empowering our lives and to be aware of the places, people and styles of worship that we need to go to in order to find spiritual refreshment, is part of keeping our faith in Jesus alive. Our race as disciples of Christ isn't finished yet, so let's make sure our spiritual fuse board is in good working order, and that we know where to turn to fix things if we find ourselves running low on power.

In not totally unrelated news, Graham and I will be away over half-term, plugging ourselves in to our annual dose of Exmoor! I look forward to hearing about your spiritual power sources when I get back.

Go well and God bless

Rachel

 I am not certain what I would do without our benefice administrator reminding me that it was my turn to write the introduction to this week’s letter.

Once I had been reminded the next problem was what to write about. I remembered an email earlier in the week about the location for Monday morning prayers and it provoked a thought about where do I pray. So I am going to share with you where I have prayed. In my case usually silently.

There are the obvious, church services and events, but where else?

Large gatherings of Christians, in my case New Wine. This felt like a celebration among like minded folk.

At times of stress. In a hospital when a loved one or a friend is undergoing treatment. On an aircraft before take off or landing, or when undertaking a difficult or unfamiliar task. These prayers are usually a plea for help.

Whilst driving. I dislike having the radio or music on, so this is a quiet time to enable me to order my life. These prayers are often requests for guidance.

In daily life when something goes well, but surprisingly not often when things are going wrong. I think I am too focused on fixing the problem but will say thankyou once fixed.

As a Scouter, with Cubs and Scouts in Scout Halls, tents and the countryside, both in the UK and abroad with local Scouts. These prayers are usually thankyous.

Recently whilst travelling on cruise holidays I was initially surprised by the fact that a Sunday service was offered and by the number of people attending the service. On one cruise line they provided a Chaplin’s corner every morning, which on the two trips I have made was led by an ordained minister giving up their holiday time to travel with us. These prayers are a mixture thankyou and guidance, fortunately up to now they have not been for help.

So what am I trying to say? I suppose it is fairly obvious but wherever we are and whatever we are doing there is always time and space to pray and whilst praying out loud is good we can also pray silently.

Tim Ellis

Churchwarden

St. Marys Eversley

Thank you so much for all the gifts that were given at our various harvest services. A special thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make the benefice Harvest Supper and Quiz Night such a success. Due to some amazing generosity £400 was raised for Tear Fund on the evening.

Continuing with the harvest theme, yesterday I drove down to Salisbury and was surprised to see the amount of work going on in the fields. I thought harvest time was long gone. We have had our harvest festivals, and it seems late in the year to be working the fields and harvesting grain.

At both St Mary’s and St Barnabas, the gospel for our harvest services was the parable of The Sower. Seeing the late harvest being gathered in it occurred to me that for those of us who are older than we like to think we are, God is still able to bring about a late harvest in our lives.

Somebody once said that in God’s kingdom you never retire, I wonder what He has in store for you and for me?

Faith

We have two very large oak trees in our front garden and over the last three weeks they have been shedding acorns. However many times we sweep up the front drive within a few hours it is covered again. It happens every year, but this year seems to be a particular good one for an acorn crop. Occasionally we see a squirrel harvesting the acorns and storing them away for the winter.

As a benefice we are in the middle of our harvest celebrations, a time to reflect on God’s work in creation and in His abundant provision. But harvest is more than thanking God for food and produce; it’s a spiritual moment. We’re called to sow kindness, nurture faith, and share generously. Just as farmers trust the unseen growth beneath the soil, we trust God’s work in our hearts our church and in our community.

Our harvest celebrations continue this weekend with our Harvest Supper and Quiz on Saturday evening and our Harvest service at St Mary’s on Sunday morning.

God Bless,

Stuart

Dear friends,

The words that we choose to describe ourselves, what we think and how we act, are important. The word "Christian" is both a noun, a name for someone who believes in Jesus Christ and an adjective, a 'doing' word, describing the generosity of spirit with which we seek to follow Christ's teaching and example. "Discipleship" is another word for the ways in which we try to do this, and in both churches this week we look at different aspects of our discipleship as we try to learn to be better disciples of Christ, better Christians. 

Many of the things we try and do as Christians involve growing or serving a community, giving people fertile ground in which to support each other through all the highs and lows of life. Sometimes those activities have to change and adapt in response to people's needs and what is found to be achievable. This is true for what has been known for the last 18 months as 'Creation Cafe'. The hospitality of a Monday afternoon at St. Mary's has developed into a place which helps people build friendships and in addition values the skills that produce all sorts of intriguing and useful items. Sometimes these are then gifted on to others who can put them to good use, often in difficult circumstances. So, it has been decided that this regular gathering is going to adopt a name that better describes it; it will now be known as St. Mary's 'Friendship Makers'.

Recently, I took a huge 'bin' bag of hand-knitted items made by this group and their friends, to the charity New Forest for Ukraine. Last week I delivered more bags of woolly hats and gloves (this time second-hand) from people linked to St. Mary's and watched as they immediately got stuffed into the corners of suitcases being packed up to be driven out to people in great need of friendship and warmth in war-torn Ukraine. It is good to know how far our friendship is reaching, and how quickly!             

Everyone continues to be very welcome at St. Mary's Friendship Makers, whether you make things, are looking for companionship, or are just passing on a Monday afternoon ramble. We hope to make more and deeper friendships as we grow this community, and hope that in doing so others will know that they are loved as Christ loves us.

Go well and God bless

Dear friends,

This week I’ve had the joy and privilege of experiencing the NHS. I’ve noticed that I’m struggling to hear some conversations so I got a referral from my GP for a hearing test. This week I was diagnosed with age related hearing loss and will be given hearing aids.  Well, I’m in my sixties so it’s no surprise.

Which got me thinking, isn’t it a good thing that God’s ears don’t deteriorate with age because we all really need him to hear our prayers and in 2 Chronicles 7 it says that his ears are attentive.

This week is the Global Week of Prayer when we can join with Christians across the world to pray for God’s greatness to be known. So, let’s pray together, to seek to encounter God this week and to carry his love into our communities to transform them with his love.

Lord, shine your light into the darkness, transform our nations, heal our land and bring peace to all. Jesus, reveal yourself as the way, the truth and the life to all. Amen

Blessings,

Jane

Dear friends,

I wonder what barriers to our activities we've faced this summer, if any? Perhaps trains were late, or planes cancelled, roads blocked by accidents, or signage lacking so that we got lost?!? Hopefully we got to where we needed to be in the end, whether those were escapes to other countries, the local countryside, the seaside, or the bright lights of some city. As we look back on our experiences, is it worth remembering how and at whom we chose to express any frustration we felt; was it appropriate to the problem we faced, and even if we got angry only in our own heads and hearts, are we aware that God heard us?

We are coming to the end of the school summer holidays, and with them the end of our sermon series on Jonah. His responses to God are not quite what God wants, and he's possibly not the most likeable of Bible characters. However, there is a ring of authenticity in this account of his reactions to the mission God has engaged him in, and perhaps we've found that our reflections on Jonah's story have reminded us of times when we too have wanted to run away from or express our frustrations at what God has encouraged us to do.

This week as we find God challenging Jonah as to why he's so angry, perhaps we can listen with him as our creator God reminds us of the truth that "every human being is made in the image and likeness of God" (Genesis 1:26-27) and as loved by God as we are ourselves.

In prayer I'm sure we will also hold our children, teaching and support staff as they start new academic years, perhaps changing establishments, facing new challenges, and learning how to handle new opportunities and frustrations... may they with us, know God's presence in all things.

Over the next couple of weeks Faith and Stuart are taking a holiday. Please contact our Benefice Administrator Amanda Clark, Churchwardens, or myself, should you have a concern that needs an urgent response.

Go well and God bless,

Rachel

Dear friends,

First I want to take this opportunity to give a very big thankyou to everyone who helped make this Staycation week such a great time. Everybody I have spoken with  has said how much they enjoyed the various events and there are lots of requests for us to do something similar again in the future. 

Over the last two or three weeks I have been working on  the preaching series for the autumn. Both PCCs said that some teaching on discipleship would be good, and that sounded a great idea until everybody I spoke to had a different idea of what discipleship is, and then it began to feel less of an attractive proposition!

Anyway, I persevered and my conclusion has been that discipleship is the process of becoming an ever-closer follower of Jesus. In a nod to technology, I also asked chat GPT for a definition  and this was the reply:

‘Discipleship is the lifelong journey of becoming more like Christ—shaped by the Spirit, rooted in Scripture, and expressed in daily life. It involves the renewing of mind and heart (Romans 12:2), so that we are transformed into Christ’s likeness.’

I must say, with regret,  chat GPT probably has come up with the best definition.  As I read it, the thing that pulled me up sharp was the reminder that when we give our lives to Christ, it is all of our life for the whole of our lives.

God bless,

Faith