Minister's Desk

Whose Job Is It?

This is a story about four people named

Everybody, Somebody, Anybody and Nobody.

There was an important job to be done, and Everybody was asked to do it.

Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it.

Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it.

Somebody got angry about that, because it was everybody’s job.

Everybody thought Anybody could do it,

but Nobody realised that Everybody wouldn’t do it.

It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done!

This year's Lenten Study Series has been a real experiment!  When we started to plan we were very uncertain as to how it would work and the poster was very hard to design because it needed much more information than usual.  The week before the start there were frantic phone calls for explanation and reassurance.  Though we have not yet had an in-depth review it would seem that it was reasonably successful.

Everyone who wanted to attend had two decisions to make instead of just one.  The first was "Do I want to go?" and the second was "Which venue will I go to?"  The whole idea was to give the opportunity to talk to one another, to exchange ideas and opinions, to share the experiences of faith.   There are very few opportunities to do this across the denominational divide.  This year's theme was "Pathways to God" and each week we explored different 'pathways' and the conclusion we came to in our 'venue' was that each person has to make their own pathway to God.  It is our own feet which forge the pathway for ourselves.

Teresa of Avila, a Spanish mystic of the 16th century, wrote extensively about the life of prayer and in her book "The Interior Castle" can be found the following.

"A beginner in prayer must look on himself as one setting out to make a garden for his Lord's pleasure, on most unfruitful soil which abounds in weeds.  His Majesty roots up the weeds and will put in good plants instead.  Let us reckon that this is already done when a soul decides to practise prayer and has begun to do so.  We have, then, as good gardeners, with God's help to make these plants grow, and to water them carefully so that they will not die, but produce flowers which give out a good smell, to delight this Lord of ours. Then he will often come to take his pleasure in this garden and enjoy these virtues."

As me days lengthen and the time of planting and cultivating in the garden approaches why not spend some time in the garden of the soul, planting and tending that which brings joy and hope.

At Marianella ONLY: Facilitator: Rev. Vanessa Wyse Jackson

As many of you know, I subscribe to the magazine "Horizons", which is published by the Presbyterian Women of the Presbyterian Church USA.  I have shared with you some humorous excerpts from the "Dispatch from Forbearance Presbyterian Church."  These articles are often funny but the latest one entitled "A Ministry of Noticing" is more meditative and has an important message.  Have think about what it is saying! *

(*apologies, unable to reproduce original text due to copyright).

"I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year".

As I was putting the Christmas decorations away this year, it did occur to me that it sometimes seems as though we try to pack Jesus away and keep him under wraps until the Advent season comes round again.

Some years ago, I heard Gerald Priestland speaking about how God can end up as an unwelcome guest that we put in the smallest, meanest room in the house so that he won't bother us!

And one final quote, which I came across but have not yet managed to find out anything about the author, a William Parks, "Christmas is not just a day, an event to be observed and speedily forgotten.  It is a spirit which should permeate every part of our lives."

The whole Christmas event is about Emmanuel - God with us.  Perhaps we should always keep a Christmas decoration up somewhere in the house to remind us that God didn't send his Son to be Emmanuel - God with us for just a few days in Advent and Christmas and then carefully wrapped up and put away until next year.

© Ann Weems "Kneeling in Bethlehem"

"Maybe"

by Thomas M. Shuman

Maybe it is the waiting for God,
not in the wandering from store to store,
that we find our way.

Maybe it is in the friendship of God,
not in the frenzy of the crowds,
that we are led to the manger.

Maybe it is in the steadfast love of God,
and not in the pile of stuff under the tree,
that we find what we have been searching for all our lives.

Maybe, just maybe, God of Advent,
this year will be different.

Maybe, just maybe,
we will let you lead us to Bethlehem.

I was racking my brains to think of a subject for this months Cornerstone and the only idea that kept coming into my mind was a couple of lines from a hymn.  “Change and decay in all around I see/O Thou who changest not, abide with me.”

This is the month when the leaves wither and fall off the trees, the plants take refuge in sleep, and the days are shorter and the cold begins to kick in.  It is a depressing sort of month!  The season of “mists and mellow fruitfulness” is past and the long wait for the suns’ strength to return begins.  This is a rather dreary way to begin so let’s look at November again from the other end.

We all need to rest and relax, so it is only fair that nature gets the chance to do the same.  Remember the colour and abundance of the summer.  Remember the feeling of spring in the air as winter passes.  These are only possible because earth has rested and restored itself.  The earth is settling for its’ winter rest - perhaps we should sing it a lullaby and watch and wait for its’ re-awakening.

"After you have occupied the land that the Lord your God is giving you and have settled there, each of you must place in a basket the first part of each crop that you harvest, and you must take it with you to the one place of worship."  (Deuteronomy 26: 1.2 GNB)

Harvest Thanksgiving comes round year by year and we faithfully observe the day - and rightly so.  However, we are far removed from the situation that faced the people of the Exodus settling into the "Promised Land."  The early settlers of Plymouth Colony in Massachusetts were particularly grateful to the Native American Indians who taught them how to catch eel, and grow corn.  

Without their assistance, the settlers might not have survived in the New World.  Settling in a new land is fraught with danger and the people live on the edge of disaster all the time.  It is the same for those people who live in areas of the world where the land is poor and any harvest is entirely dependent on the rains coming, and coming in moderation.  For us a trip to the local supermarket provides us with all we need, and we pay the going rates for basic foodstuffs.  We do not till the earth and wait for the food to grow.  We depend on others to do that for us.  This has been a bad year for millions of farmers.  Africa has experienced the worst floods for decades and crops have been wiped out.  There is no supermarket to make up the shortfall and even if there was, there is no money to pay for it. 

The gulf between the "haves" and the "have nots" is steadily growing. It is happening in Ireland but that is just a microcosm of what is happening worldwide.  The "haves" can turn on a tap and get fresh water, eat three times a day and have access to education and health care.

The "have nots" drink and cook with polluted water having carried it for miles, wonder as each day dawns if they will eat anything that day, and will watch their children die without having the simplest of drugs.  This is not Gods' vision of the world - peaceful, compassionate and free.  Do we not have a responsibility to live according to God’s vision?

I subscribe to a magazine called "Horizons". It is the equivalent of "Wider World" of the Presbyterian church in Ireland. It is published bi-monthly by the Presbyterian Women of the Presbyterian Church USA.  In each edition there is an article entitled "Dispatches from Forbearance Presbyterian Church."  It is always first on my reading list and is sometimes the only article I read.  In 2003 the Presbyterian Women published a pocket calendar with some highlights from Forbearance Church!                                     

1998 A Congregation in Process

"When Rev. Hustisford asked for suggestions everyone present, as always, had an opinion." (I wish the same could be said of CCR).

1999 Any New sick or dead

“Becoming Forbearance's Compassion Coordinator was a dream come true for Emily and she embraced it with an enthusiasm that left the notion of discretion in tatters." (Our Church visitors are admirably discreet.                                                  

2000 Annie, the Kitchen Queen

“What Annie understood best was any recipe that could be cooked in a Vat." (Flo is our expert on cooking in a VAT).

2000 Calvin Peterson's Star Turn

"Perhaps the most arresting feature of the service was the interpretive liturgical dance presented by Forbearance's Thursday morning exercise class - an ill advised spectacle of diverse body shapes stuffed into leotards gambolling down the centre aisle trailing tendrils of chiffon attached here and there."  (l await with interest word from the Wednesday morning keep fit class in CCR).

2001 The Prose of Sharon

"When the Sunday Bulletin urged contributions to the 'flour’ fund and explained that "all who desire their picture in the new dictatorial directory should sign up to be shot by the photographer", people knew that Sharon had struck again.”  (My sympathies are with Sharon!  I think I might be related).

We all know our own birth dates and we keep track of our friends and families birthdays.  Married couples remember their wedding date, and quite an industry has grown up around silver, ruby and golden wedding anniversaries.

As a congregation we have several dates to choose from.  In 1859, six men petitioned the Presbytery of Dublin and Munster to establish a congregation for the Presbyterians living in the Rathmines/Rathgar area of the city.  In January 1860, the Rev. William Fleming Stevenson was called as the minister, and on the 19th July the foundation stone of the new building was laid.  In 1862 the newly completed church was consecrated.  We have chosen to go with the date of the application to Presbytery, since that was the foundation date of the congregation - the buildings came later - and though important - not as important as the date which brought together the people.
 

In that same year several other significant events were taking place.  Charles Dickens published his book "A tale of Two Cities" and Charles Darwin published the "Origin of the Species."  The ground was broken for the building of the Suez Canal. Big Ben began to chime for the first time and a man called Thomas Austin took 24 rabbits and 5 hares to Australia in order to release them as game!  It was also the year of the John Browns raid on Harpers Ferry Armoury - which led to the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery in the United States.
 

The "birthday" of the Christian Church is often regarded as being Pentecost - the day the gift of the Holy Spirit was given to believers in Jerusalem, and of course each year we celebrate the birth of Jesus on the 25th December.
 

Our 150th anniversary recalls the faith of the early members of our congregation who are part of the world wide church which has been in existence for over two millennia. 
 

How would you like to celebrate it?                                                                    

For many people hymns are a great source of comfort.  Often, I have found the hymnbook beside the Bible on the bedside of people who are sick.  Somehow, hymns can be a little more accessible than the daunting pages and pages of the Bible.  Hymns are a means of expressing the most contradictory feelings of sorrow and gladness, hope and despair.  In John Calvin’s Geneva it was the children, who in church services, taught their parents to sing.  The early church was well aware of the power of hymns, for in the letter to the Ephesians we find “Speak to one another with the words of psalms, hymns and sacred songs; sing hymns and psalms to the Lord with praise in your hearts.”  In fact, it is thought that some of these very early hymns are contained with the texts of Philippians 2: v 6-11 and Hebrews 1: v 3 for example.  The Psalms were the basis of Presbyterian singing for many years, and are the basis of many of our modern hymns.

Perhaps some of greatest hymn writers were Isaac Watts in the seventeenth century, Philip Doddridge and Charles Wesley in the eighteenth century and Fanny Crosby in the nineteenth century.  For each of these people there was opposition from the traditionalists and the same can be said of our own modern day hymn writers. 

I sometimes think that it is the tunes that make the hymns memorable rather than the words.  The tune “Cwm Rhondda” (Guide me O my great Redeemer) for example was written by John Hughes, the organist of Chapel Rhonnda in Hopkinstown, near Pontypridd.  Hughes had been asked to write a tune for the inauguration of the chapel and its organ in the early 1900s.  Word and song come together to worship God.

Perhaps you would like to choose some of your favourite hymns to be sung in church...

This summer is going to see significant changes taking place within our congregation.  (I can hear some of you saying “What next?”) but there are changes afoot!

Change 1:

We are in the process of electing new elders.  This will mean a change to the Kirk Session which has not seen this kind of change for 11 years.  Electing new elders is a slow and meticulous process.  Those who commit themselves to the eldership are making promises for life and they are making a very real commitment to this congregation.  The service of ordination will be held on the 20th May 2007 at 7.00 p.m.  The new elders are committing themselves to service here in CCR, and it is only right that we make the same commitment to support and encourage them as they take up their new role.  I sincerely hope that there will be a good attendance for this most important service.

Change 2 :

At the end of this month Karen will finish her ten years of service to us as Youth and Family Worker.  I know that I will certainly miss her backup and support, and I suspect we will all realise just how much she and Howard contributed to the life of the congregation over the last ten years.  We wish Karen and Howard, Kelton and Eleanor all the very best in the years to come.  The best tribute we could pay Karen is to ensure that the work she has begun is continued, and continues to grow and develop, even though she is not there to guide it.  (The process of finding a new Youth & Family Worker is underway - can she ever be replaced?)

Change 3:

This one is more difficult to quantify for it is a change we need to be constantly working at, and it is up to each one of us to implement it.  A church is a building, or a meeting place, but it is much more about being a gathered community of people who come together to worship and serve God.  The real church is the people who meet inside the building and who build relationships and fellowships, both inside the bricks and mortar of the church, and outside in the community.  In the next few months the fellowship aspect will be harder to work at as people come and go on holidays, and the Sunday services become more sparsely attended.

Happy Easter to everyone!
 

Rejoice and be glad! The redeemer has come!

Go look in His cradle, His cross and His tomb

Sound His praises, tell the story of Him who was slain

Sound His praises, tell with gladness He liveth again

Rejoice and be glad!  For the lamb that was slain

O’er death is triumphant and liveth again

Sound His praises, tell the story of Him who was slain

Sound His praises, tell with gladness He liveth again.

Rejoice and be glad!  Now the pardon is free;

The Just for the Unjust has died on the tree

Sound His praises, tell the story of Him who was slain

Sound His praises, tell with gladness He liveth again.

Rejoice and be glad!  For our King is on high

He pleadeth for us on His throne in the sky.

Sound His praises, tell the story of Him who was slain

Sound His praises, tell with gladness He liveth again.

Rejoice and be glad!  For He cometh again

He cometh in glory, the Lamb that was slain

Sound His praises, tell the story of Him who was slain

Sound His praises, tell with gladness He liveth again.

Horatius Bonar  (1808—1889)

Patterns, traditions and local customs are constantly changing to meet the need of the local community.  Change occurs when something doesn’t meet the needs of the moment and either an old pattern has to be “tweaked” or something entirely new is needed.  Change is unsettling - it disrupts the even tenor of our ways and requires us to think and then act.  Nothing on this earth is static, though some things change more slowly than others, but even the slow and ponderous changes come to a “tipping point” which we have to overcome.

What is true in the world is true in the church, and in the ways we offer God our worship and praise.  Though, strangely enough, much of what is deemed to be “new” in the church is in fact, only a rediscovery of something from the past.

For all the changes we experience there is one thing that never changes - the love of God - and at no time in the Christian year is this more evident than on Easter Day.

“Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love.  And God showed His love for us by sending His only Son into the world, so that we might have life through Him.  This is what love is:  it is not that we have loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.”

So when changes seem to be swamping you, remember the words of the 17th century hymn writer Nahum Tate:

“Through all the changing scenes of life, in trouble and in joy

The praises of my God shall still my heart and tongue employ.”

Psalm 127 v 1 begins:

“if the Lord does not build the house the work of the builders is useless:
If the Lord does not protect the city, it is useless for the sentries to stand guard.”

Over the past year we have been engaged in a building project which represents the biggest project this congregation has undertaken in the past half century.  The new refurbished Tennant Hall represents our conviction that this congregation intends to continue to work and witness to Christian standards and values in our local community and further afield for a long time to come.

On Sunday 4th March 2007 we will be re-dedicating the Tennant Hall to the work and glory of God and another milestone will be set in place in the history of this congregation.  The service will be in the Tennant Hall, and there will be coffee afterwards, and a chance to get a feel for our new premises and a chance for everyone to begin to get a sense of ownership of them.

These are our premises, and they provide an outreach facility to the local community.  They provide much needed meeting rooms for the congregations activities, but they also provide an opportunity for us as a congregation to work and witness to the glory of God.

We owe a great debt of gratitude to those who worked so hard over the past year to bring this project to fruition, and we thank God for their commitment.

Some more fun for the New Year!!

(from ‘The Church-English Dictionary’ by Martin Wroe, Adrian Reith & Simon Parke)

ark – prototype floating zoo

crèche – A collision between two cars in Kensington

Candlemas  - the next opportunity to light some candles once the wax has been scraped off the pews after the carols by candlelight service

Flower rota – a sheet of paper so that the flowers know when they’re on duty

Hope – a stirring deep within as the preacher says, ‘……and finally.’

Hymns For Today’s Church – yesterday’s actually

Holy – in communion with God

Humble – in a right relationship with your neighbour

Human – someone who finds humble and holy rather difficult

Heresy – disagreeing with the Pope (Roman Catholics) John Calvin (Presbyterians) John Stott (evangelicals)

Last times – periodic occasions in history when the world ended – until it didn’t. After which its proponents revise their theology and renew their pension scheme

Miracle – when a human obeys God

Nave – main body of the church. Named after the main body of the occupants. (see knave)

Original sin – Its extremely hard to commit sins with any degree of originality. But it doesn’t stop us trying.

Office – most people go to it. Clergy say it

Revelation – complicated bit at the back

Saint – sinner in disguise

Sinner – saint in waiting

York – Number two in the See chart just ahead of London and just behind this week’s number one, Canterbury

And finally from the English – Church dictionary (at the back of the book)!

  Interesting choice of hymns, Vicar – ‘Do you choose them in your sleep?’

“Christmas is coming and the goose is getting fat

Please put a penny in the old mans hat!

If you haven’t got a penny a ha’penny will do

If you haven’t got a ha’penny - God bless you!
 

I was curious about the origin of this simple Christmas rhyme and so I started exploring.  The origin of the words is lost in time but the music for it was written in the late 19th century.  Whenever the words were written they were obviously designed to encourage a sense of generosity to those less fortunate, particularly in the Christmas season. Every year in CCR we support a range of different charities over the Christmas period, and this year will be no different. 

On Sunday 3rd December we will be hearing about the World Development Appeal of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland.  The aim is to raise £500,000 for development projects.  Funding is channelled through the churches own aid agencies - Christian Aid and Tearfund.  World Development not only aims to raise money but also to raise awareness.  World Development supports the continuing campaign to cancel the debt of poor countries.  World Development supports the trade and Justice movement which is working for fairer world trade rules.  In 2002 the General Assembly passed the following Resolution:  “That the General Assembly encourage the use of fairly traded products within the Presbyterian Church in Ireland and advocate the use of fairly traded tea, coffee, and other products within Church House and also at presbytery and congregational events.” 

On Sunday 10th December there will be a retiring offering in aid of the Ronanstown Project which we have supporting for many years now.  This money goes to either food hampers or clothing vouchers, depending on the particular need.  Maureen Collins is our link with this group.

On Sunday 17th December there will be a retiring offering in aid of Focus Ireland, which has been the chosen charity for the past two years.  Homelessness is a big problem and people can lose their homes quickly, and through no fault of their own.  “Homelessness is just a pay-cheque away.”

Then, as usual, the offering taken on Christmas Day is distributed between various local charities.

The fact that we are in the midst of major fund-raising for our own should not make any difference to our giving to others.  We have the capability of paying off our own debt - our giving to others helps those who cannot.

I trust that, as in past years, the congregation will be generous in their giving.

NOVEMBER 2006

I was aware of and had some understanding of All Saints’ Day but All Soul’s Day puzzled me!  I came across this explanation recently in a book entitled “Glimpses of the Divine” by Cyril Bulley:
 

“All Soul’s Day is one of the oldest commemorations in the Church.  A certain St Odilo, who lived from 962 to 1048 and was Abbot of Cluny, exercised a profound influence on the life and work of the Church in France and Italy.  It was he who introduced to the Church in his diocese the commemoration of the departed on November 2nd and although he regarded it as a local observance it gradually captured the imagination of the whole Church.  In one sense, it was a natural development of the Christian hope of eternal life for which hope we have our Lord’s teaching in St Mark’s Gospel (Mark 12 v 18 – 27), but that apart it is inconceivable that those who are in active communion with the Living God in this life should not continue to enjoy that communion in the life beyond the grave.  To contemplate the snuffing out of the human personality which God himself made, and which is temporarily wrapped in flesh, is to deny an essential element of the Christian faith. Our Lord’s own words: “He is not the God of the dead but of the living’, are all the Christian needs to assure him that the death of a body is not  the death of the self in which the person has lived.  This has nothing to do with psychical research, nor can it be sustained or disproved by empirical observation.  Of the life beyond the grave we can speak only in symbols, but of its reality we can speak with conviction.  Inevitably man in his ingenuity has invented all sorts of legends and created all sorts of symbols but the essential truth ‘YOU have never been away’ stands firm, for the ‘you’ is the real ‘you’ which can never die.”
 

In effect we ‘keep’ All Soul’s Day every Sunday in the prayers of thanksgiving for loved one departed and for all who have left sorrow and pain for life and love eternal.

As I prepared this years group of young people for reception into the full membership and admission to the Lords’ Table I was taken aback by a question from one of the young people.  It was “Why did Jesus descend into Hell?”  As so often happens, it is the unexpected which opens new routes and avenues.

I was reminded of a paragraph in a book called “The Pilgrim Heart” by Liz Babbs.

“Our journey through life is not one long party.  There are many ups and downs along the way, as well as long   periods of time when nothing seems to be happening.  Sometimes there are potholes, peat bogs and dead ends, but there are also lush valleys and ravines which provide oases of refreshment.  Nobody ever promised a problem free life.  Even Jesus’ ministry was beset with problems from beginning to end.”

It is a human characteristic to think that when we are “suffering” no one else can understand.  We each have to bear the ups and downs of life on our own because our experiences are unique.  However, the truth of the matter is that because everybody understands their own “suffering” they can empathise with others who are “suffering” also John Calvin in his great tome “The Institutes of Christian Religion” wrote

“If Christ had died only a bodily death, it would have been ineffectual.  No—it was expedient at the same time for him to undergo the severity of Gods’ vengeance, to appease his wrath and satisfy his just judgement.  For this reason, he must also grapple hand to hand with the armies of hell and the dread of everlasting death.”

 At the core of understanding why Jesus “descended into Hell” is our belief that in His earthly ministry Jesus experienced all that we experience in life.  He experienced the highs and lows, the dead ends and the peat bogs, as well as the lush valleys and the oases of refreshment.

To put it into the language of today's’ youth—Jesus had been there, done that, and got the T-shirt.

SEPTEMBER 2006

The summer has simply flown by this year and here we are at the start of a new season of church activities and events. This summer has been taken up with the very exciting developments within the Tennant Hall.  I have tried to call in with Martin (the foreman) each week and the amount of work that has been accomplished in a relatively short time is amazing.

From a personal point of view and on behalf of the congregation we owe Donald McNeill a very big thank you for his hard work on our behalf. Donald has kept the work on track throughout the summer and he and Martin between them have been able to keep the momentum going.

It was no small feat to get the Lecture Hall painted and the floor sanded in the middle of it all. It was lovely to welcome the Moderator, Dr Clarke, to an evening service in a church that was well filled and to a hall that was "spruced up and looking in its prime".  I also got the opportunity to show Dr Clarke around the Tennant Hall before the service and he was impressed with the commitment being demonstrated by our congregation.

Now is the time for a little patience since we have to attend to the details and they always take time.  When all the work is completed we will have facilities which will rival any around. They are for the use of the congregation and the development of our work as a congregation.

I am reminded of the opening verse of Psalm 127:

"If the Lord does not build the house, the work of the builders is useless; if the Lord does not protect the city, it is useless for the sentries to stand guard."

As we wait for the conclusion of the summer's hard work, let us begin the task of ensuring that everyone who crosses the threshold of our premises, church, halls and grounds is made to feel that Christ Church Rathgar is a place where the Lord is present and the work of God is being conducted.

Back to top

© Christ Church Rathgar

Christ Church Rathgar are not responsible for the content of external websites,
nor do they necessarily endorse their sponsoring organizations.
PCI Guidelines for Internet Usage

Rev. C. Mary Hunter,
B.A., B.D., M.Min.