November 2009
Services
| Sunday Services | Friday Services |
|---|---|
| 8.00 am Holy Communion (Prayer book) | 10.30 am Holy Communion (Prayer book) |
| 11.00 am Sunday at Eleven | 5.30 pm Meditation |
| 5.00 pm Meditative Eucharist |
|
Sunday at Eleven
November 1st: Odyssey: Spiritual and Literary Journeys Preacher Prof Robin Kirkpatrick Robin Kirkpatrick is Professor of Italian Literature in the University of Cambridge. He is best known for his work on Dante, one of the great imaginations of Christendom, who described the spiritual journey in compelling literary form. He will speak on the relationship between spiritual and literary journeys. It will also be All Saints' Day. November 8th: Remembrance Sunday Service Preachers Canon Alan Cole This is Remembrance Sunday, and we will have a special service for that occasion, commemorating members of the armed services who have given their lives in the service of their country. The service will begin at 10.58 am, so that there can be a silence at 11.00 am. November 15th: Eucharist: Julian of Norwich Preacher Revd Dr Malcolm Guite Julian of Norwich, a local East Anglian Saint, and one of the great visionaries and mystics of Christendom, means a lot to us at St Edward's. There is still much for us to learn from her powerful spiritual visions, and we will commemorate her in this Eucharist. November 22nd: Feast of Christ the King Preacher Canon Fraser Watts In the modern lectionary the last Sunday of the Church year has become an occasion to celebrate the Kingship of Christ, and it is a fitting culmination to the year. Fraser will preach about the 'Christ-mysticism' to be found in St Paul and many other Christians, the sense that in Christ all things hold together in unity and all find their right place. November 29th: Odyssey: World AIDS Day Preacher Revd Martin Kelly Martin Kelly is a former Chaplain of Selwyn College, now a health-service Chaplain in Basildon. In this service, on the eve of World AIDS Day, we will remember the global health threat that AIDS represents, and the many spiritual and humanitarian issues is raises. (N.B. This replaces the Odyssey that would normally fall on the first Sunday of December.) |
|
Meditative Eucharist - Sunday at Five
November 1st: Commemoration of All Souls Preacher Canon Fraser Watts This is the Eve of All Souls' Day, and we will have a special commemoration of the departed, in which those who wish can come and light a candle in front of the altar in their memory. Fraser will conclude his series of sermons on spiritual paradoxes, focusing on the ultimate paradox, 'dead but living'. November 8th: Including Gender Preacher Revd Caroline Brownlie This is the first of three sermons about the inclusiveness of the church, a church called to be 'deliciously welcoming'. One of the challenges the church has addressed in recent years is to bring the feminine back into our understanding of God, and to honour it in our church life. November 15th: Including Gays Preacher Canon Fraser Watts The Church is going through a period of debate about its attitude towards homosexuality. Beyond that debate, it is clear that God loves all people, including gays, and that all are welcome in the family of the church, gays as much as anyone else. Fraser will suggest how the church can move forward on this issue, beyond its current debates. November 22nd: Including Other Faiths Preacher Mr Jon Oliver The church should be deeply rooted in Christ, but it can also recognize in humility that it has much to learn from people who follow other faiths. We have quite a number of Christians at St Edward's who have drawn on the wisdom of faiths such as Judaism or Buddhism, and we can be 'deliciously welcoming' of the enrichment of our church life they bring. November 29th: Advent Sunday Preacher Canon Fraser Watts A special service for this first Sunday of the New Year, in which the great Advent Antiphons will be sung in a candle-lit procession. Fraser will put both the first and second 'coming' of Christ in evolutionary context. |
|
Student Discussion Group on Science and Religion Discussions will take place every two weeks, at 7.15 pm starting on Monday October 19th in the Lloyd room in Christ's College, led by Matt Owen. Each session will be introduced by an academic in the science and religion field and followed by an open discussion. All current and recent students are very welcome.
|
Holistic Group: The holistic group that meets on Sundays at 3.30 pm will meet on October 25th, November 8th and November 22nd. The theme this term is 'including the feminine'.
Gothic Eucharists: Tuesdays at 8.30 pm. Rich liturgy, contemporary music and challenging sermons. The present sermon series is on 'Doors to our Downfall'. October 20th: Sara Ball on Chocolate; November 3rd: Mick Ellis on Sex; November 17th: Fraser Watts on Drink; December 1st: Malcolm Guite on Money.
LGBT Group: The group will resume October 18th, meeting alternate Sundays at 6.30 pm. October 18th: Chris Boden on LGBT Amnesty issues; November 1st: Fraser on Including transgendering; November 15th: Steve Mastin on How does the church include Gays (following up on Fraser's 5.00 pm sermon); November 29th: Social.
Christianity in Later Life: From time to time, there will be an opportunity to discuss issues about later life for half an hour after the 11.00 service. The next occasion will be after the Remembrance service on November 8th.
Sunday 8.00 am Holy Communion: November 1st: Trinity 21; November 8th: Trinity 22; November 15th: Trinity 23; November 22nd: Sunday Before Advent; November 29th: Advent Sunday.
Chaplain's Letter: Real presences (Malcolm Guite)
It is amazing what we learn from our bodies! I have recently been struggling with a small knee injury that has made moving from place to place quite painful, so naturally it's focused my mind on the question, 'Why do we do it?'. We live in an age of video-conferencing, and internet chat-rooms; can't we all just stay at home and interact electronically? We'll still see each others' faces on the little webcams, so wouldn't web encounters in virtual spaces be just as good as a gathering of physical bodies in a particular place? Emphatically not! The harder it is for me to get to St Edward's, the more I value being there in the flesh with real people in a real place.
I remember reading an article a few years back confidently predicting the emergence of 'virtual church'. The author suggested that a cartoon construction in cyberspace filled with the self-constructed 'avatars' of the members of the congregation, listening to the vicar's own 'avatar', would soon replace that clumsy old-fashioned business of actually being there. This shiny new church would be so much more 'equal'; there would be no disabilities, no weakness, no aging, no gender issues; everyone could give their avatar, their 'virtual self', a Hollywood makeover: perfect physique, eternal youth - and they could change their appearance from hair colour to gender at the simple click of a mouse. And all this in so-called 'real time'!
Apart from giving a new lease of life to the idea of 'the church mouse', this seems to me more a vision of hell than of heaven. There is no virtue in the virtual, we need to love and be loved as we truly are, with no fixes or make-overs, knobbly knees and all! There is no 'real time' together without real presence and we honour one another precisely through the time and effort we take to be together. 'Where two or three are gathered together,' said Jesus, 'I will be there in the midst' - not where two or three thousand are idly clicking mice. And of course it is His real presence which is at the heart of our real presence to one another. God didn't stay in heaven and fob us off with illusions and avatars! He got off His throne and came down to be personally and physically present with us: Jesus Emmanuel, our God with us, and now He is physically present to us in one another.
So my dodgy knee has made me value our time together at St Edward's more, and also filled me with admiration and gratitude to those faithful members of St Edward's who battle through far more than the odd knee twinge to be with us week by week; elderly people cycling long distances, people arriving in wheelchairs, people battling through the headwinds of ME and depression, so that they can enrich us and be enriched in turn by the weekly gathering of real presences which is at the heart of St Edward's.
Clergy: Revd Dr Fraser Watts (19, Grantchester Road, CB3 9ED; 359223); Revd Dr Malcolm Guite (694249); Canon Alan Cole (892286). Lay Chaplain: Mrs Christina Johnson (572669) Churchwardens: Mr Steven Mastin (361041); Mrs Judith Tonry (892160). Treasurer: Mr Geoffrey Barnes. Chapter Clerk: Mr Stephen Davies (242636). Church phone: 362004