bath & wells: the bath & wells 'grapevine'
february 2008
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LET’S TALK SAY THE TOURING BISHOPS
BATH AND Wells’ two Bishops have begun a three year marathon mission to meet thousands of people in their daily lives, encourage the Church to renew its vision and listen to the hopes and concerns of all their clergy.
Bishops Peter Price and Peter Maurice will systematically visit each deanery in each of the three Archdeaconries as part of the Changing Lives, Changing Churches for Changing Communities initiative while at different times also meeting all their clergy, one to one, in their homes.
They will visit hundreds of Churches, shops, businesses, family centres and schools in towns and villages.
Changing Lives is designed to help people think differently about being Church and to meet the needs of the present day,” said a Diocesan spokesman. “The aim of the tours is for the Bishops to get to know better the people they serve and to help the Church renew its vision as they encourage and affirm work being done.”
This year the Bishops are visiting deaneries in Taunton Archdeaconry and between them they began with a three day visit to Sedgemoor Deanery that included visits to the YMCA, a Family Centre, the Royal Ordnance Factory,a funeral directors, coffee shop, hospital, a rural business centre and school.
Conversations over lunch are a feature of the tours and this one included a Civic Lunch in Bridgwater, one with the Building Schools For The Future Project Team at St. John’s, Bridgwater, another at the primary school in Middlezoy and Bawdrip’s monthly parish lunch.
Other deanery tours planned for 2008 are to Taunton in April, Crewkerne and Ilminster in May, Quantock in September, Tone in September/October and Exmoor in October. The clergy visits begin with Bath Archdeaconry, the first in February and March.
“The programme is a major undertaking which is going to make the diary very crowded,” said Bishops' Senior Chaplain, Preb Stephen Lynas: “The whole operation will be demanding and tiring but very worthwhile.”
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Kenya Diocese for Bp. Rob
VICAR OF Holy Trinity, Frome, Revd Rob Martin, has been appointed a Bishop in trouble torn Kenya, a country he knows well and loves.
Rob, who will be consecrated in Kenya before Easter and begin work at Suffragan Bishop of Marsabit, Northern Kenya in October, says for him and his wife, Sue, the move to Africa will be a homecoming.
He worked for ten years as accountant in the Diocese of Mount Kenya. This includes the area he will now serve, which has a population of about 200,000 served by about 15 Priests, many evangelists and Church workers, is about the size of England, and is mostly desert with rain forest and elephants. The only way to get around is by flying, which he plans to do with Mission Aviation Fellowship, or landrover.
Rob and Sue are being sponsored by the Anglican mission agency, Crosslinks, but will have to raise their own support.
The country has experienced political unrest since the presidential election in 2007 with opposition parties challenging the result and the Archbishop there has been working for peace and dialogue.
“I can’t comment on the situation as I won’t really know what is happening until I get there,” he said.
“The Archbishop has been working for peace and dialogue and I believe the Church has a very important role to play in bringing peace and reconciliation.”
“There is unrest and drought and famine. I am able to go there as neutral without any political or ethnic affiliations. My job will be to listen and learn what are the Church’s and the people’s needs, find out what are their hopes and dreams, and help them achieve them.”
Rob read languages at Cambridge, is already fluent in Swahiili and speaks some Kikuyu. He trained for the ministry at Trinity College, Bristol on returning from Africa, was ordained Deacon in 1991 and Priest in 1992 serving his Curacy in the Kingswood Team Ministry. He has been Vicar at Holy Trinity for nearly 13 years and has also been Rural Dean of Frome for four years.
He and Sue have three adult sons, two of whom were born in Kenya, who will be staying in England.
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A “marvellous” ministry began with a dream
A CHURCHWARDEN’S dream has led to the development of an ecumenical town centre ministry that Bishop Peter Price has dubbed “marvellous” and “effective”.
Jeffrey Riddle of St. George’s, Wembdon in his dream saw queues of people snaking round Cornhill, Bridgwater, but Christian friends were unable to say what it might mean. Instead they suggested he set up a prayer table to see what happened.
And for the the past nine years Jeffrey and friends from other Churches have manned the table every Tuesday, offering to pray with passers by and shoppers, or just to listen to them.
The prayer table was one of the first points of call for Bishop Peter Price on the first stage of the tour of the Diocese he is making jointly with Bishop Peter Maurice.
“This is a marvellous and important ministry,” said the Bishop. “It is a very effective act of witness to the town.”
Jeffrey said: “I thought it would be difficult to do this, but it hasn’t been and we haven’t had a single word of abuse. People expect to see us here now and seem to appreciate what we are doing.
“We have between 10 and 20 people a week come to us to talk or to pray.We did miss one week when it was a bank holiday but so many people told us off that we promised never to miss again.” 
Picture shows: Bishop Peter at the table with Jeffrey, regular helper and United Reformed Church member, Amy Granville, and Deanery Synod Secretary, Katherine Cannell. Picture by John Andrews
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Healing in the silence
BY RUSSELL BOWMAN-EADIE
HEALING IS rooted in Hebrew Scriptures in anticipation of the Messiah and in Jesus’s own approach to His ministry. He embraced and accepted human sorrows and faults. He saw how a great deal of human suffering was not related to sin or moral failing but to natural disasters and physical ailments and so He went beyond just the purely ‘spiritual’ side of sin and ministered to the whole person who was wounded and in need of healing. This is why healing in the Church has always been important and linked to wholeness and reconciliation
A loving Church community can reverse the damage of society’s values, pressures, abuse and self centredness. So the whole Church community needs to be involved in this kind of ministry which leads to wholeness and reconciliation.
A television programme on alternative medicine focused on spiritual healing showing there is evidence that people’s attitude of mind can really affect their bodies. If they believe they can be cured it often helps them to be cured. Jesus certainly had a healing effect on people similar to this and , of course, much greater. And He commanded His followers to carry on His work to “teach . . . .and heal”.
The act of laying on of hands is an extension of Christ’s healing welcome. We are providing somewhere to experience God’s love in the gentle touch of hands, supporting and holding, with prayer for God’s healing. In offering the laying on of hands it is hoped to release in all who come that power to heal which God has planted within them.
The act of laying on of hands will be done in silence with silent prayer offered - no prayers are said aloud. All may come and simply have hands laid upon them either for themselves or on behalf of another or for a situation in the world needing healing and reconciliation.
If we see healing in this broader sense then we can also see how there is a place for the Healing Church where people can come to find wholeness and peace of mind.
A NEW Service of Holy Communion with Healing has been introduced in the Lady Chapel of Wells Cathedral on occasional Saturdays through out the year. The services take place at Noon on: 9 February, 29 March, 12 April, 7 June, 5 July, 2 August, 13 September, 25 October, 8 November.
Russell Bowman-Eadie is Director of Continuing Ministerial Development.
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YOUNG VISITORS SEE IT AS IT IS IN THE
NEW SOUTH AFRICA
A 20 year friendship with Cape Town, South Africa added an extra dimension to the visit there of 18 teenagers and their leaders from St. Philip’s, Odd Down, Bath
They dropped in on the different racial communities, took part in young people’s Church services and visited AIDS patients in hospitals.
Group members, who stayed with friends made over years of two way visits, worked in schools, climbed Table Mountain, visited Nelson Mandela’s prison and heard about the progress to overcome the legacy of racial segregation.
Vicar of St. Philip’s, Revd Alan Bain, who accompanied them, said: “This was a real opportunity for young people from Odd Down to discover what it is like to live in a nation that is rebuilding.
“Our long friendship with South Africa has certainly proved worthwhile.”
Teenagers Joel and Emma Millard spoke of their experiences of visiting AIDS patients to their own school, Oldfield Girls, and took two assemblies on AIDS using statistics and their own perceptions of the visit.
Joel said: “One teacher told me it was the best assembly he had ever seen.”
Other young people from the group are planning to do the same. sort of thing at their schools.
The picture shows the group at Lion’s Head, Cape Town with Table Mountain in the background.
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LET’S START THE WEEK WITH PRAYER
A SCHOOL’S experiment to offer each school week up to God with prayer is drawing in children, parents, staff and governors.
Preston Church of England Primary has launched a ten minute session in the school hall each Monday morning before the start of the school week to include prayer, responses learned by the children in assembly, actions and a short reflection, reports the Schools Newsletter of the Diocesan Education Department.
“The Anglican Church has the tradition of saying Morning Prayer every day for the community,” says Associate Vicar of Preston Plucknett, Revd. David Keen.
“It made sense to bring that rhythm into the heart of the school community and it has been lovely to see staff, children, parents and governors praying together and offering the school week up to God.”
There is a come and go element to the session with staff able to leave early to get ready for the school day and sometimes parents arriving near the end.
A core regular group attend with sometimes a parent or family attending when they have a particular prayer need.
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CREATING QUITE A STIR
A SCHOOL’S experiment to offer each school week up to God with prayer is drawing in children, parents, staff and governors.
Preston Church of England Primary has launched a ten minute session in the school hall each Monday morning before the start of the school week to include prayer, responses learned by the children in assembly, actions and a short reflection, reports the Schools Newsletter of the Diocesan Education Department.
“The Anglican Church has the tradition of saying Morning Prayer every day for the community,” says Associate Vicar of Preston Plucknett, Revd. David Keen.
“It made sense to bring that rhythm into the heart of the school community and it has been lovely to see staff, children, parents and governors praying together and offering the school week up to God.”
There is a come and go element to the session with staff able to leave early to get ready for the school day and sometimes parents arriving near the end.
A core regular group attend with sometimes a parent or family attending when they have a particular prayer need.
Picture shows some of the children getting down to the serious business of stirring the pudding 
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Star of wonder offering true
hope and light
Bishop Peter Price’s parable for Lambeth
When I was ten years old I had my first look through an astronomical telescope, and saw the craters of the moon, as well as the red planet of Mars. It was a magical experience, and I have always secretly longed to have a telescope of my own. With uncanny intuition my family clubbed together and bought me one recently, and I have once again seen the craters of the moon.and even a few stars.
Learning to look into the darkness in order to discover the light of the stars is not without its difficulties. It takes about thirty minutes for the eyes to really adapt to the dark.
Because the telescope has become something of a family thing, there has been a little impatience from those standing around waiting their turn to look into the lenses, and it has been followed by cries of ‘I can’t see anything.’
And one by one they’ve mumbled off to get coffee and warm up, leaving me to llow my eyes to adapt to the dark.
Once the eyes have adapted to the dark, true wonders of light begin to appear. Stars deep in space and invisible to the naked eye become apparent.
My first real star gazing began on the eve of the Epiphany, the traditional time of remembering the arrival of the wise men from the East coming to the manger in Bethlehem.
Well, I didn’t discover any new stars - as far as I know, but I did find in the darkness, true light.
Signs of Hope
Later this year we are looking forward to the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury. This event happens every ten years and is a gathering of Bishops from around the world who come, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury to pray, converse and seek to agree together on their part in God’s mission in the world today.
We will be welcoming our partner Bishops from Zambia, together with the Bishop of the Western Region of the Brisbane diocese and the Bishop of Western Cuba, Nerva Cot Aguilera, who is the first woman Bishop in Cuba. We are planning a series of events from 11th -15th July, including a service for all in the Cathedral and a Garden Party, to offer the best hospitality we can to our guests.
There is no doubt that the Lambeth Conference is being held against the background of some difficult times in the Anglican Communion. Using the parable of looking into the telescope, we could say that things have appeared quite dark at times.
However, using that same parable, there are signs of hope and light. People are recognising that what binds us together is greater than what divides us, and, while we are not yet seeing things clearly, we do at least begin to see pinpoints of light, which may well be the stars that lead us into hope, and a fresh engagement with the mission of Jesus Christ to the world.
New Perspective
One other thing that I am having to learn is that the telescope inverts the image, when you look into it, so things are seen upside down. Of course that gives a new perspective. Looking at the craters of the moon, the ones at the top appear at the bottom, and vice versa. I guess that is something of a parable too, and one of the valuable things about meeting together at Lambeth will be to see things from an ‘upside down’ perspective. Seeing, and hearing other points of view.
If, unlike my family who watched on the roof with the telescope and lost patience with the exercise, we can let our eyes become accustomed to the need to see differently, then who knows what beauty and splendour awaits us. As Gerard Manley Hopkins puts it:
Oh! look at the stars! Look,look up at the skies...
Buy then, bid then! -What? -Prayer, patience, alms, vows
Christ home, Christ and his mother and all his hallows
Please pray for us all and especially for Archbishop Rowan. Plan to come to the Cathedral on 13 July and look out for the details of other events to join in.
The message from the Bishop of Bath and Wells, the Rt Revd Peter Price, in the February 2008 edition of The Grapevine, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Bath and Wells
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CHEERS FOR MARATHON MIKE
DIOCESAN ACCOUNTANT Mike Coombs has completed the New York marathon in 4 hours 20 minutes and so far raised £3000 for the Bishop Andrew Memorial Fund and Cancer Research UK.
“It was a fantastic experience and a day I will never forget, with over two million people lining the streets cheering us on,” he said.
“More than 38,000 runners completed the course and over 100 countries were represented.
“I thank everyone who supported me for their generosity.”
The picture shows Mike at the 23 mile point with 3.2 miles left to run when, he says, he was “not feeling too bad.”
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GATEKEEPERS AT THE CUTTING EDGE OF MISSION
TOURISTS ARE at the heart of both strands of the lives of Paul and Carol Arblaster: Gatekeepers at the Bishop’s Palace, Wells and missioners with the non denominational Gloucester based Cutting Edge Ministries.
The couple combine such tasks as looking after the Palace’s famous swans with their street based ministry of music and Gospel.
Carol plays and sings the Celtic harp and Paul talks with passers by and gives out Gospel literature.
Paul also acts as Chaplain in the medieval Magdalene Chapel in Glastonbury.
The couple have created a power point presentation called Thin Places featuring photographs of early Christian Celtic sites, historical narrative and Carol’s songs for presentation at Churches in aid of charities. The next one is on 1 March at Draycott Church.
“The presentations are a different way of sharing the Gospel that is historical yet alive with both visual and musical power,” said Carol “We also talk of our jobs at the gatehouse, with some of my harp compositions, reflecting on the beauty of the creatures and environment surrounding the Bishop’s Palace.”
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SCHOOL OF FORMATION
Taste and See
By Brian Pearson
APPARENTLY 23 million of us shopped on line in 2007, spending about £13bn in the process. Undoubtedly armchair buying is attracting increasing support.
Clearly innovative approaches to separating us from our cash offer advantages, such as the enjoyment of seeing and choosing the goods while avoiding the jostling crowds. On the downside, the more tactile side of shopping cannot, as yet anyway, be experienced via a laptop.
But, whatever the benefits of armchair shopping, it cannot get you Sainsbury Snacks. Time it right - and believe me I can - and a trip to the supermarket can be rewarded with a selection of tasty free samples. It may be a tray laden with a new line, a kiosk dispensing special offer wines or, best of all, a range of treats lined up on the deli counter.
No need to be hesitant. Indeed, such is my dedication to providing accurate feedback, that I try several samples to ensure quality consistency. How dedicated is that? My point being? There is no substitute for live testing.
Yet the more valuable an item the less time people spend trying it out. When I was choosing a car one salesman was astounded that I test drove a vehicle for almost an hour on a variety of roads, trying out every button, switch and accessory. He did not mind, but he commented that most people just drove a car around the block and then happily parted with thousands of pounds.
And has anyone ever said: “I like this house, but may I live in it for a while before deciding whether to make an offer” ? But what if you were invited to taste something as important as your next home? Would you not jump at the opportunity?
Is not our discipleship and spiritual formation important enough to want to choose well how it is to progress? So, given the opportunity to ‘taste and see’, trying a sample makes good sense. And guess what, ‘trays’ await you, filled with a selection of tempting goodies, not by Sainsbury but by the staff of the Diocese’s School Of Formation.
Tastings can be arranged at a venue near you and last just 90 minutes. And it might just trigger an exciting new development within your area or Local Ministry Group or group of parishes.
Good things can be gained from being an ‘armchair disciple’ but equally popping out to taste something a bit different may introduce something a bit special.
THE SCHOOL of Formation offers over 80 short courses for Church communities and is running four leadership courses for clergy, Readers and lay leaders.
Brian Pearson is Publicity Officer for the School.
For details contact Dawn Hickman at The Old Deanery on
01749 685106.
Go on: give it a taste!
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Lesley’s ready with vital advice
FORMER PCC Treasurer Mrs. Lesley Strutt began in January her new job - advising other treasurers and those involved in Church finance.
Lesley is the new Parish Resources Adviser, taking over from Preb Stephen Lynas, and will work with parishes who ask for advice about how to finance work in their Churches, from encouraging generous giving and promoting Gift Aid to balancing maintenance of the building while reaching out in mission to the local community. She will also advise on funding large capital projects.
Lesley, who has had a career in high street banking, was a PCC treasurer for nine years until recently and is now a PCC Secretary and has been Lay Chairman of Ivelchester Deanery for six years.
As a member of the Parish Resources Group and Common Fund Committee for six years she has been co presenter with Stephen at several workshops and seminars on giving related matters.
Any parish or benefice needing help with overcoming financial hurdles should contact her for an initial informal discussion on 01749 685145, emai:
lesley.strutt@bathwells.anglican.org
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New Vicar for Clevedon St John
KEEN AMATEUR photographer and Grand Prix racing fan, Revd Roger Jackson, is to be Vicar of St. John’s, Clevedon, expected to begin there in April and already having found the parish “in good heart, very unified and eager to move forward.”
Roger, aged 50 is married to high school teaching assistant, Susan, and the couple have two adult children. He worked in industry before studying for the Ministry at ChichesterTheological College being ordained Priest in 1989 and serving as Curate in Surrey before moving to Manchester.
Currently he is Vicar of St. Mary’s, Long Crendon, St. Nicholas, Chearsley and St. Nicholas, Nether Winchendon in Buckinghamshire.
Subject to the usual Criminal Record Bureau checks, he takes over at St. John’s from Fr. Victor Barley, who has had temporary care of the parish for 18 months.
The previous Vicar, David Smith, was jailed for five and a half years in May 2007 after having been found guilty of sexually abusing six boys over a 30 year period.
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