September

The social ritual of shaking hands with a complete stranger, or with someone we know well, is very familiar to us and is recognised across the world.  Even in this country, with the reputation that we once had for shying away from physical contact, we always managed to shake hands when meeting someone for the first time, when clinching an agreement or when making up after a disagreement or misunderstanding.

Now, it seems, many of us and many of those around us are prepared to go even further.  We may not yet be fully comfortable, for example, when men of other nationalities start kissing each other on the cheeks, but people definitely touch and hug more now.  We are learning to value the experience of physical contact not only in greeting, but in celebrating moments of excitement and achievement, and perhaps more importantly in showing sympathy and understanding at times of sadness and pain when words simply do not do the job.

Something else that binds people together are shared memories, very often celebrated as anniversaries.  These are very important as it is the past that so often shapes our present and the future.  Families and faiths all have anniversaries that are important to them, some joyful, some painful, all usually evoking people and events of the past that have made us what we are today.  Special days and special people – and very often we do something special to mark the occasion.  It may be a meal, a party, a visit, an outing to a special place, digging out significant objects or photographs.

Christian worship has long recognised the importance of these two factors.  First, that we express our thoughts, feelings and beliefs, not only in words, but also physically and with tangible objects.  Second, it can be very important to be in touch with what has gone before, with what has made us who we are today.

This is why Sunday is the day for Christians to come together.  Each Sunday is an anniversary of the resurrection of Jesus which, at the time, was the first day of the week.  It was then an ordinary working day, as it is now in non-Christian countries and as it is becoming in post-Christian secular societies.  But for Christians, Sunday will always remain a special day, a holy day, a day set apart from the rest of the week.

It is a God-given time to step out of our routine, even if just for an hour or so, and focus on the eternal.  It is also the day when we have the opportunity to take part in what we often call Holy Communion.  This is when we get back in touch with the story, the events, that lie at the heart of the Christian faith and relive them, not only in our minds and hearts, but also with our bodies.  Following the instructions given by Jesus, we take, touch, taste and consume bread and wine as we remember the man who died for us.

Jesus himself set this up and, as we believe there were no barriers between his actions and the will of God, we know we are doing it on the highest authority.  In the same way we use water for baptising or christening both new believers and the children of those who already believe.  In the same way there are also occasions, such as confirmation and ordination, when hands are used as a sign of strengthening and conferring God’s grace and power.

Bread and wine, water and hands are not just signs but effective means by which God shares himself with us, and comes to dwell within us.  Of course, God is not limited to these, but they have his authority marked upon them and so, in the context of Christian faith and worship, we can put our trust in them.

So Christian spirituality is not an abstract other-worldly experience.  It is rooted in the ordinary things that we know and do in this world, which is after all God’s world.  And those ordinary things, dedicated and offered to God in prayer and worship, are transformed into holy things, specially committed to God for his purposes.  But their main purpose is to help us in our daily living, not to be venerated as holy objects.  We do these things in remembrance of him, the one who died for us, so that we may share his life and gradually be transformed into the people God made us to be.

Holy Communion – each Sunday at 8.30 am and 10.00 am

Services that include Holy Communion are held each Sunday in at least one of the churches in our group – at 8.30 am (no hymns and no sermon) or at 10.00 am (with hymns and sermon).  Moving around churches in now becoming the norm so please refer to the guide printed at the back of this magazine.

Harvest Thanksgiving Services

As well as celebrating the good things in life at our Harvest Thanksgiving Services,  we also focus on those who rarely enjoy all the things that we take so much for granted.  Hardly a week goes by without us hearing of people in need in different parts of the world, and so we want our Harvest Celebrations also to be about making a generous offering to those who have so little.

Most of our churches will be celebrating Harvest next month.  But first off the mark are Bridford on and Doddiscombsleigh – Bridford on Sunday 19^th September at 11.30 am followed by Harvest Lunch in the Village Hall and Doddi on Sunday 26^th September at 6.30 pm followed by an informal Harvest Supper in Church.  All are welcome.

Autumn Bible Course

We are planning an Autumn Bible Course based on Luke’s Gospel.  This will last for five weeks on Thursday mornings 10.30 – 12.00 starting on 23^rd September and finishing on 21^st October.  The venue will be The Spinney in Bridford by kind invitation of Francis and Daphne Leversedge.  In five weeks, we cannot hope to cover the whole gospel – so this will be more of an in-depth focus on some of the stories that we find only in Luke.  In other words: Luke – no further!

Confirmation Service

We are now thinking about the possibility of having a Confirmation Service here in the Teign Valley in 2011.  If you think this might be for you, or you would like to know more, please get in touch.

PCC Meetings

A reminder for PCC members of their next meetings:

Doddiscombsleigh     Thursday 16^th September at 7.30 pm at Oakley

Dunsford                   Wednesday 22^nd September at 7.30 pm at Wood View

Christow                    Wednesday 6^th October at 7.45 pm at The Rectory

Bridford                    Wednesday 13^th October at 2.30 pm at The Spinney

Ashton                       Wednesday 20^th October at 2.30 pm at George Teign

From The Registers

Weddings

July 24^th               Edward Symes and Emma Whitaker (Dunsford)

August 14^th                     James Frayling and Loveday Kitto (Ashton)

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me direct (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency).  Please feel free to phone at other times.  If I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

                                                                                                          Graham Mayer

August

Somewhere out there on the edge of my awareness, I am conscious that there is a leadership contest in process for the top position in the Labour Party.  As we are talking about a possible future prime minister for our country, I suppose I ought to be paying more attention.

The five candidates comprise two brothers, two Eds, one of whom should have been advised to change his surname years ago, one Catholic and one woman.  I know that makes six, but that is because one of the Eds is also one of the brothers.  One of the candidates is the first black woman to be elected to Parliament, whereas the men are all in the Shadow Cabinet.

They have been appearing together quite a bit at various hustings including one held in Westminster Central Hall in early July by the Christian Socialist Movement.  With an audience drawn largely from local church communities, this was clearly not the occasion to state, as Alastair Campbell famously did back in 2003, that ‘we don’t do God’.  Instead they had to venture out of their comfort zones and say something about the core values that inspire and motivate them in their political thinking.

Most of them managed to find religious elements in the way they had been brought up and to link these to their political thinkiing.  The father of one of the Eds had been a Sunday School teacher, while the parents of the two brothers had been Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany.  These three were very clear about the connection between their thoughts on matters of ethics, social justice and democracy and the values promoted by the stories in the Bible and the teachings of Jesus.  Love, compassion and caring were particularly important.

Likewise the Roman Catholic is reported as claiming that the basic tenets of the Labour Party and the Christian faith are one and the same, although he admitted to feeling quite uncomfortable with the ‘black and white’ approach that his Church hierarchy took to complex moral issues.  The lady from Hackney was less committed and had simply noticed that more people attend faith meetings than political meetings on Sundays.  So she had concluded that she ought to ‘take issues of church and faith very seriously’.

They were all clearly adept at carefully adapting themselves to the perceived core interest of their audience, just as members of the royal family and some political leaders adapt the uniform – military or civic – of whatever group or organisation they happen to be visiting.  So it was that President Bush used to be kitted out in desert gear for his visit to the troops in Iraq and even Gordon Brown took off his jacket and tie in Afghanistan, while Prince Philip put on his Busby with uniform and medals for the Trooping of the Colour in June.

But there has to be a bit more to it than simply saying, or wearing, the right thing at the right time.  If the core values of a Christian or even secular humanist approach to politics are love, compassion, wholeness and social justice, then we ought perhaps to acknowledge where these ideas have come from.  Likewise the concern that many people share for the care of our planet, its resources and its ecology, is clearly derived from Biblical teaching on creation and our human stewardship of it.

As these values exist in other traditions as well, we have to recognise that they are of ancient origin and form part of an accumulated wisdom shared by people of several different cultures.  At the same time, these values are by no means universally admired or followed.  They are in constant battle with other strong and resilient forces within human hearts and minds.  They especially contend with the cruel, ruthless and selfish greed, ambition and exploitation of people and resources that we know are around us all the time.  They struggle against the forces that drive people to deceive, steal, cheat, harm and destroy in pursuit of their own goals and interests.

As far as Jesus was concerned, the core values of love, compassion, wholeness and social justice were central to his concept of the kingdom of God.  Not a territorial kingdom, but a kingdom that is being established wherever these core values are being promoted, wherever they are ruling human hearts and minds.  This stands out clearly in his teaching and also in the way he treated the people that he encountered, whether they were rich and powerful or poor, vulnerable and excluded.  It seems that he so embodied the core values that it was as if he was God himself, the Son who was just like his Father. 

Worship is about giving supreme honour and worth to those core values of the kingdom of God.  It is also about building a relationship with the love that lies at the heart of life and finding there a source of strength that empowers people in their daily lives and struggles.  Jesus faced the struggle and conflict with the opposing forces and contended with them even to the point of dying rather than give in to them.  His death, however, was no defeat, but a victory.  So long as these values remain central to the thinking of those who govern us, however blurred and muddied they may become in the daily grind of politics, we are in a good place and we can have hope.

Special events coming soon

Sung Compline – Sunday 1^st August at 6.00 pm - Christow

Sometimes we need something more quite and reflective and last year the ancient service of Sung Compline was well received.  So we are going to do this again on Sunday 1^st August at 6.00 pm in Christow Church.

Please note that there will be no Holy Communion at Bridford on 1^st August.

Family Services – Sunday 5^th September 10.00 am - at Christow and at Dunsford

Dunsford has a monthly Family Service on the first Sunday each month.  Next month there will also be one in Christow.  These are fairly short and informal and suitable for all age groups.

Confirmation Service

I am beginning to receive enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children.  If you think this might be for you, or you would like to know more, please get in touch.

Teign Valley and Haldon Hill Group of Churches

At the moment our grouping of six churches is an informal arrangement that was launched back in November 2004.  Since then the relationships have become stronger and all the church councils are convinced that this is the right grouping for our village churches.  The process of making this formal and legal was initiated last year and is now almost complete.  Notices announcing the Pastoral Measure will be placed on church notice boards this month and hopefully the legalities will be complete by the end of the year.  The legal name will be the ‘United Benefice of Christow, Ashton, Bridford, Dunchideock, Dunsford and Doddiscombsleigh’, to be know informally as the ‘Teign Valley & Haldon Hill Group of Churches’.

From The Registers

Baptisms

July 4^th                           Darcie Feasby (Dunchideock)

July 11^th               Simon Squire (Dunsford)

July 17^th               Ryan and Tyler Avery (Bridford)

Weddings

June 26^th               Daniel Retter and Michele Devlin (Ashton)

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me direct (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency).  Please feel free to phone at other times.  If I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

                                                                                                          Graham Mayer

July

In these days of summer, as you look out of your window into the garden, or across to the surrounding hills and countryside, you might be forgiven for thinking that you were looking out into a scene of peace and tranquillity, a safe haven of beauty and harmony.  The truth is, of course, that our gardens and the fields beyond are both very busy and dangerous places.

Observe how even a large and seemingly confident bird like the rook or the jackdaw approaches with great care and attention.  They may have their eye on some tasty morsel, but before committing to a landing they will careful survey the scene.  They will make their way from sky to tree, from house roof to gatepost, before making the final drop.  The time they spend on the ground will be as short as possible, and we only have to appear close to a window for them to take fright and quickly grab what they have come for and swoop off to the nearest place of safety.

However the main danger for them in our gardens will not be human but feline.  Our pet cats may purr soothingly on our laps but outside they are a deadly and cruel killing machine.  A crow or magpie is unlikely to be attacked, but smaller birds certainly, especially inexperienced juveniles, and other little creatures that may attract their attention.  There are other predators around too, as I was reminded the other day when a magnificent sparrow hawk swooped down over our washing line.

Far less obvious is what’s going on under our feet.  As David Attenborough’s amazing films on insects revealed, this is where life can be really harsh, ruthless and cruel.  The summer is also the time when we become aware of just how busy it is out there.  Millions and millions of flies, beetles, spiders, ants – and others too tiny to see with the naked eye - are hard at work fulfilling the purposes given to them for what seems like an extraordinarily brief life span

Some of these take care not to be caught.  The ordinary household fly seems to be acutely aware of human approach.  Other insects seem totally oblivious so we might assume that their brains are just not big enough to process that kind of information.  But whether they large, small or undetectable, they are all hard at it, keeping their own species going and also paying their part in the bigger picture of sustaining life in this amazingly complex world.                

In fact the more scientists try to understand who we are and the universe into which we are born, the more baffling it seems to become.  Some scientists are suggesting that even our best human brains may not even be capable of understanding the forces that are at work both out there in the cosmos or deep within the micro-world of atoms and particles.  They say that we are still as far from decoding the universe as fish are from understanding the properties of the water that they live in.  We know they will never get there and probably neither will we.

As the wise man once said, the more we know, the more we realise we don’t know.  Far from being cocky and arrogant about our human achievements, immense as they are, it could be that the sooner we humbly accept our limitations, the more content we shall be.  Of course, we have to go on searching and exploring, devising and testing our theories, and a few people will devote their entire lives to doing that.  But if our brain power and capacity have their limitations because that is the way we have been designed, then it might make more sense to tackle the problems we already have rather than go looking for new ones.

Three thousand years before our age of modern scientific discovery, an ancient poet wrote these lines:

When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers,

the moon and the stars which you have set in order,

what is man that you should be mindful of him,

or the son of man that you should care for him?

Although these lines date from a time when the word ‘man’ could mean humankind, and ‘him’ could be gender inclusive, they still echo clearly the thoughts that come to many people even today as they gaze on a clear starlit night into the distant mystery of the universe.

Likewise the sense that someone, or something, out there cares for us is as strong today as it has ever been.  People feel supported, strengthened, guided by a presence or force beyond them.  Things fall into place.  They feel loved.  Someone’s looking after them, sometimes in the most adverse circumstances.  It’s not something that could be proved scientifically but that does not make it feel any the less real.  It can feel so personal that we tend to say ‘He’ rather than ‘It’.  And in fact, whoever He is, He’s not just out there.  He’s right here where we are now and we should all probably spend more time rejoicing in Him.

Special events coming soon

Family Services – Sunday 4^th July 10.00 am - at Christow and at Dunsford

Dunsford has a monthly Family Service on the first Sunday each month.  This month there will also be one in Christow.  These are fairly short and informal and suitable for all age groups.

Sung Compline – Sunday 2^nd August at 6.00 pm - Christow

Sometimes we need something more quite and reflective and last year the ancient service of Sung Compline was well received.  So we are going to do this again on Sunday 2^nd August at 6.00 pm in Christow Church.

Confirmation Service

I am beginning to receive enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children.  If you think this might be for you, or you would like to know more, please get in touch.

From The Registers

Baptisms

June 13^th                       Rufus Scrase (Doddiscombsleigh)

Funerals

May 28^th                 Christine Alison (Doddiscombsleigh – at Exeter Crematorium)

June 18^th               Margaret Barr (Interment of Ashes at Dunchideock)

We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me direct (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency).  Please feel free to phone at other times.  If I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

                                                                                                          Graham Mayer

June

It was George Herbert, the C17 priest, poet and hymn writer who said that the Devil divides the world between atheism and superstition.  In other words, if God’s enemy fails to turn you into an atheist, fails to convince you that there is no God, then his second best is to allow you your sense of the supernatural but lead you away from trusting in God into a twilight world of fear, fate and superstition.

So you will be on the lookout for black cats, single magpies and any cracks in the pavement.  You’ll touch wood, go round ladders, keep a good luck charm and make no plans for Friday the 13^th.  You’ll be hooked to your horoscope and when it all begins to get a real grip on you, then it’s only a small step into the world of tea leaves, fortune telling, palm reading and tarot cards that still find a ready market in our world today.

Humankind has always had a strong sense that there is more to this world than meets the eyes.  It does not take much for this to develop into an obsessive fear of the real or imagined forces that we cannot see and for some people to end up enslaved to patterns of compulsive, ritual and placatory behaviour.  People have done and still do all sorts of things to keep the unseen gods happy.  At its most extreme this has led at various times and in different places to the atrocities and terrible distortion of human sacrifice.

It is easy for us to forget that, even with our scientific knowledge and understanding, there are still forces and causes around in our world that we are not yet able to understand, let alone control and harness for our own purposes.  It is also easy for us to forget just how recent some of the breakthroughs have been.  The connections that we now automatically make between hygiene and health or between diet and health just totally escaped the attention of most of our ancestors.  Not to mention a whole range of conditions and syndromes that we are only just beginning to understand but which were once dismissed simply as signs of idiocy, abnormality or worse and, if not cruelly persecuted, usually kept out of sight.

Ignorance, fear and superstition tend to go hand in hand.  When Jesus was around, it was generally assumed that if you were sick, crippled or disabled in some way, then it had to be someone’s fault.  It was the result of sin.  Parents could be blamed for producing a blind, lame or deformed child.  If you fell victim to disease, then it must have been your fault and you deserved to be punished and ostracised rather than looked after.  Leprosy was particularly feared as it cut you off from all normal human contact, and you had to carry a bell and make a loud noise to warn people of your approach.

Long before there was any understanding of these conditions and their true causes, Jesus seems deliberately to have gone looking for such people.  On one occasion, he went up to Jerusalem for a Jewish festival, and wandered to a place where all the invalids, the blind, lame and crippled, gathered around one of the reservoirs used to store the city’s water supply.

Superstition had it that when the water was disturbed, as it was now and again, then whoever made it into the pool first would be healed of their condition.  The disturbance in the water, which may have resulted from an intermittent spring or a surge in the supply, was attributed to an angel of the Lord.  Jesus found a man who had been waiting there thirty-eight years.  He desperately wanted to be healed but, whenever the waters were troubled, he needed someone to carry him to the water.  The result was that he had no chance of ever getting there first.

We generally attribute the way Jesus treated such people as an example of his love and compassion, the Son of God mirroring the love and compassion of the Father, in actions of miraculous healing, but there is more to it than that.  He also seems to be challenging the culture of ignorance, fear and superstition that was around and shaped the way such people were treated.  There was something about him that wanted to break the mould, and blast through the stranglehold that false understandings had over people’s lives.  It feels like he wanted to open them up to the truth.

That would be remarkable enough in itself.  But we also have the demonstration of a power to heal, not to mention other miraculous actions that are so well documented in these eye-witness accounts.  Feeding the multitude from five loaves and two fish, the instant conversion of water into wine, walking on the sea and calming a storm – just to mention a few!

If we believe that Jesus as Son of God shared in full the power of his Father – the Father who created the heavens and the earth and everything that is around us – then such actions would not have presented such a huge challenge.  Even raising the dead and re-appearing after his own death, reassembling and breathing life back into all the constituents of the human body, should be well within his scope.

We would also expect the Son of God, not just to be filled with love and compassion at the sight of sickness and disability, but to have an understanding of their true nature and causes.  We would expect the Son of God to challenge all the ignorance, fear and superstition, and all the crazy religious rules that got in the way, and that, of course, is exactly what he did do.  If Jesus was not the Son of God, with access to all the powers that went with him, and just another first-century Palestinian prophet, none of it makes much sense at all.

Special events during June

Trinity Sunday - Group Eucharist at Bridford – Sunday 30^th May – 11.00 am

Not quite in June, but on Sunday 30^th May we celebrate Trinity Sunday with a Group Service at Bridford followed by a Group Picnic in the Woodland Park.  All are welcome – bring your own picnic.

Ashton Sunday Special – Sunday 20^th June at 11.30 pm

Something special usually happen in June at Ashton and this year we will be joined by the St George’s Singers led by one-time Ashtonian George Horrell for a Sunday Praise on 20^th June at 11.30 pm.

Confirmation Service

I am beginning to receive enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children.  If you think this might be for you, or you would like to know more, please get in touch.

PCC Meetings

PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:

Dunsford – Wednesday 9^th June at 7.30 pm at Christow Rectory

From The Registers

Baptisms

May 2^nd                          William Horton (Christow)

Confirmations

May 16^th                         Jenny Broyd (Dunsford) at Crediton Parish Church

                             by the Bishop of Crediton

Funerals

April 21^st                Eileen Bocock (Interment of Ashes at Doddiscombsleigh)

We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me direct (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency).  Please feel free to phone at other times.  If I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

                                                                                                          Graham Mayer

May

I have heard it said and people have told me that there is a place on this earth where the sea is over 4,000 m or 13,000 feet deep, that was first visited by a submarine in the year 1958, a place that is in the time zone known as UTC (or Coordinated Universal Time) and where the speed of the earth’s rotation is about zero.  If I told you that they have six months of daylight and six months of darkness every year and that this place is in the middle of an ocean but it is possible to reach it on foot, you would soon realise that I am talking about the North Pole.

If I then said to you that I am not sure that any of this is true, that I doubt whether such a place exists, you would probably think that I had taken leave of my senses and that the time had come to commit me to a Home for the Care of North Pole Sceptics.  In my defence I could argue that I have never been to the North Pole, so why should I believe that it exists, but I am sure that you would produce lots of good reasons as to why I should still believe that there is such a place on this earth called the North Pole.

The chances are that you might not have seen it either, but then you would tell me to read the stories of those who have.  I should listen to the testimony of those who have seen this place where the sun only rises once a year and where in whatever direction you turn, you are always facing south.  I might ignore what you say and go ahead with my plan to sponsor some adverts on London buses - something like ‘The North Pole probably doesn’t exist – so why worry’ - but at that point you would probably go ahead with your plan to commit me to a place of safety.

The other piece of evidence you might want to refer to is the powerful experience of the North Pole in our everyday lives.  For the last two or three months our weather system seems to have been dominated by the winds from the north – cold blasts from those dark frozen wastes that this year gave us an unusually generous helping of ice and snow.  I might suggest that this could just be something that comes from inside you - an idea of cold in your brain or genetic make up – and then you would be quite hard-pushed to prove that this place has any real objective existence.

When the women, who went to the tomb of Jesus early in the morning on the first day of the week, came back to report that the stone had been rolled away, that the body was missing, that two men in dazzling clothes had told them that the man, whose body they had buried in the tomb, was risen from the dead, it is not surprising that no one believed them.  It seemed to them that it was an idle tale, says Luke in his telling of the story.  Was it just because they were women?  Hardly likely – here is a story so far-fetched as to be impossible to believe unless you could check it out for yourself.

So that’s why Peter decided to go and check it out for himself.  He ran to the tomb, looked inside and saw that there was no body - just the linen cloths that they had used to wrap the body lying there by themselves.  Our difficulty, two thousand years down the line, is that we cannot check it out for ourselves.  We have no choice except to make up our own minds about what the eye-witnesses tell us.  In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul tells us that the risen Jesus appeared to more than 500 people in one go, but whether there were 500 or 5,000, we were not there.  So why should we believe them?

Recently a child in school asked me the difficult question: How did Jesus rise from the dead?  I suppose I could have done the politician’s trick of saying – well, that’s an interesting question, but what I’d like to tell you is this…  But I’m no politician and so I told the truth.  I don’t know, I said.  We just don’t know.

I might have said that the power of God raised Jesus from the dead.  That’s a bit like the north wind argument for the North Pole.  We know Jesus has risen from the dead and that he is alive because we are able to experience his presence with us in our lives and in our hearts today.  When we sense that someone out there is looking after us, guiding us and protecting us, we still may find it hard to give him a name.  Even Jesus’s apostles found it hard.  Some doubted, some wanted proof, and those doubts and questions persisted even to the moment when Jesus left them for the last time and was taken up into heaven.

At the very end of Matthew’s version of the story, we read how the eleven remaining disciples went back to Galilee to the mountain just as Jesus told them – and when he appeared to them and they saw him, they all worshipped him even though some of them doubted.  That’s what it’s like for us.  We worship not because we are certain about everything, but because, even though we still have questions, our relationship with God, our relationship with the eternal meaning and purpose of life is important to us.  Our faith and our worship can never be built on rock certainties, because there is too much we do not know.

In fact, exploring our doubts and uncertainties can draw us deeper into the mystery of it all.  I don’t know if the North Pole is there or not, but I feel the north wind on my skin and in my bones and I am prepared to accept the word of those who have been there.  Likewise none of us can be certain as to how or if Jesus rose from the dead, but when we have a sense of the strength, the power and the intervening of the Spirit of Jesus, the Holy Spirit of God, in our lives, we could do a lot worse than go along with the record of those eye-witnesses.  We could even join in with the worship and prayers that millions of people have offered and still offer to God, even though some of them doubted.

Special events during May

This month we are still in the midst of the Easter season that leads to our celebration of the Ascension of Jesus, the manifestation of the Spirit on the Day of Pentecost, and finally Trinity Sunday when we affirm our experience of God as Father, Son and Spirit – Creator, Redeemer and Strengthener.

Ascension Day – Thursday 13^th May – 7.30 pm Ashton

There will be a Group Eucharist to celebrate Ascension Day at Ashton at 7.30 pm.

Deanery Cathedral Celebration – Sunday 23^rd May at 5.30 pm

Here is another opportunity to worship in the beautiful and uplifting surroundings of Exeter Cathedral.  May 23^rd is the Day of Pentecost and so this will be a celebration of God the Holy Spirit.  We are inviting each church in the Deanery to bring along a banner or flag to display at the service – it can be cloth or paper with some design relating to the theme of the Holy Spirit – wind, fire or flames, or colours of red, white and gold.  Andrew Maries has been leading a group of people from across the Deanery to plan the service and there will also be the opportunity to sing in the choir or play in a music group.  If you would like to be part of that, there will be rehearsals on Sundays 9^th and 16^th May at 3.00 pm at Starcross Parish Church.  Just turn up to sing or play and, if you need transport, get in touch with Jane Inwood (252519).

Group Sung Eucharist and Picnic – Trinity Sunday – 30^th May – 11.00 am

There will be a Group Service at Bridford on 30^th May followed by a Group Picnic in the Woodland Park.  All are welcome.

Archdeacon’s Visitation – Thursday 6^th May – 7.30 pm

This year we go to the Cathedral in Exeter for the annual Archdeaconry Visitation Service conducted by our Archdeacon, the Ven Penny Driver.  The service will take the form of Choral Evensong and your Churchwardens and your Rural Dean will be sworn in.  All church members are invited to attend.

PCC Meetings

PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:

Ashton – Wednesday 26^th May at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton

Bridford – Wednesday 19^th May at 2.30 pm at Connets Cottage

Christow – Wednesday 19^th May at 7.45 pm at The Rectory

Doddiscombsleigh – Wednesday 12^th May at 7.30 pm at Oakley

Dunchideock – Thursday 27^th May at 7.30 pm at The Beeches

Dunsford – Wednesday 9^th June at 7.30 pm at Christow Rectory

From The Registers

Baptisms

April 25^th              Emma O’Nions (Dunsford)

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me direct (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency).  Please feel free to phone at other times.  If I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

                                                                                                          Graham Mayer

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April

Anyone who has ever seen Richard Attenborough’s spectacular film of the life of Mahatma Gandhi will remember those wounding scenes where, as a lawyer in South Africa, Gandhi found himself the victim of several incidents of racial discrimination.  The most famous was on the train journey from Durban to Pretoria, when a white passenger complained to the guard about having to share a first-class compartment with an Indian, even though he had a legal and valid ticket.  Refusing to abandon his rightful place and go to the third class, he found himself forcibly thrown off the train at Pietermaritzburg where he spent a long winter night in an unheated waiting room.

Nearly a century later in 1993, Nelson Mandela, as the first black President of South Africa, was at the same station to celebrate Gandhi's memorable example of personal sacrifice and dedication in the face of oppression.  At a commemoration ceremony, he granted Gandhi the posthumous honour of the freedom of Pietermaritzburg, and now the famous waiting room has become something of a Gandhi memorial.

Mandela is, of course, best known for his own struggle against the evils of apartheid.  To start with, he tried to follow Gandhi’s example of non-violent protest, but finally realised with deep reluctance that armed resistance was the only way forward.  After the well known Sharpeville massacre when the police fired indiscriminately upon a crowd of protesters, he felt justified in responding with violence, but never to hurt or kill, only to damage significant buildings.  As leader of the ANC, he soon became a wanted man and was eventually caught and given a life sentence.

In a statement that he made at his trial, he ended with these striking words: ‘During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to the struggle of the African people….I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all may live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.’

As a category D black prisoner, these were dark days, but Mandela found the strength to complete a Law degree by correspondence with the University of London, and was even nominated for the position of University Chancellor while in prison.  Even when he was entombed in his cell, his influence was being felt, not only among other black activists in prison, but outside as well.  Even the South African government could see that the tide was turning.  They began discreet negotiations with Mandela as leader of the still banned ANC.  National and international pressure gradually built up until in 1990 they announced the lifting of the bans and the release of Nelson Mandela.

On 11^th February 1990, the world watched as Mandela walked from the tomb of his prison cell to freedom, his dreams and his ideals not only intact, but fully vindicated.  He had spent twenty-seven years in prison, but from behind those bars, he never let go of his dreams and never gave up on his ideals.  In the end, it was as if prison could not hold him or his ideals.  The old system was still in place and battles had still to be fought, but the victory had been won.  For South Africa, the days of white supremacy over a disenfranchised and disadvantaged black majority were numbered.

There’s certainly a touch of Easter about the Mandela story.  When he was sent to jail for life, it was intended to be for life, and for him it seemed to be all over.  Defeated by the forces of oppression, buried away in that dark place, you could understand it if he felt abandoned and forsaken.  But other forces were at work, forces for good and forces for freedom, and those forces eventually proved stronger than those that at first defeated him and buried him away.  It was a remarkable turn-around.

At Easter, we remember and celebrate another remarkable turn-around.  At Easter, we tell the story of a man whose dreams and ideals and whose protest against evil and corruption took him to the point where he was condemned to death by one of the cruelest forms of criminal execution ever devised.  Jesus believed that his mission was to confront the demons of disease and disability, as well as those of racial and social discrimination, human pride, greed and intolerance.  In their place, he offered love, compassion, mercy and justice.  Filled with God’s power, he proclaimed God’s kingdom and rule and confronted the forces of evil both in the natural world and in the hearts and minds of people.

But those in power and authority could not see it, and when he attacked the hypocrisy of the religious leaders who ruled the lives of the common people and enjoyed great power and privilege, his was not a voice that they wanted to hear.  They plotted how to destroy him.  They had him arrested, presented him to the civil authorities as a troublemaker, swung the crowds against him and persuaded the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate, to have him crucified.

So Jesus died and was buried, but early in the morning of the third day his tomb was found to be empty and Jesus began to be seen again.  The forces of evil and darkness had consigned Jesus to death, but death, it seems, could not hold him.  Other forces were at work.  Filled with the power of God, to whom he had remained faithful even to the point of execution, Jesus had won the victory and had been raised.

The only direct eye-witness testimonies that we have to such an amazing claim come from the writings of the New Testament, but there are a substantial number of them.  They come from people who were certainly not expecting it or trying to fabricate it.  The stories tell how they failed to recognize him at first and how they even doubted what they saw.  From a letter written by Paul of Tarsus to friends in the Asian city of Corinth, we learn just how many there were – hundreds as well as the close circle of disciples and family.

But the overriding testimony of the New Testament writings is that believing is far more important than seeing.  It is believing that Jesus, by his dying and rising again, has won the victory over the powers of evil and corruption, and by believing and living our lives in union with him, we are able claim that victory for ourselves in our own lives.  So at Easter, we don’t just tell the story of something extraordinary that happened two thousand years ago.  We celebrate a turn around in the experience of humankind that is both relevant and effective in our lives today.

Celebrating the Easter events in Church Services this April

Palm Sunday – 28^th March

Palm Crosses will be blessed and given out at all services:

Doddiscombsleigh and Dunchideock at 8.30 am – Holy Communion (BCP)

Christow and Dunsford at 10.00 am – Parish Communion with a dramatised reading of the Passion Gospel according to St Luke

Maundy Thursday – 1^st April

Commemoration of the Last Supper – Group Eucharist at Christow at 7.30 pm

Good Friday – 2^nd April

Celebration of the Lord’s Passion - Group Service at Christow at 10.00 am

Easter Day – 4^th April

Early morning Easter Communion (BCP) – Bridford at 8.30 am

Mid-morning Easter Celebrations with Communion are bring held in all our other village churches at 10.00 am: Ashton / Christow / Doddiscombsleigh / Dunchideock / Dunsford

Making Music for Haiti

Those of you who came to the special concert on 20^th February in aid of ShelterBox have all remarked that they had a wonderful evening in spite of the bitter cold outside that the church heating struggled to overcome.  All the musicians of all ages did a great job and gave us a wonderfully varied concert, and it was all enhanced by having an illustrated talk from the local ShelterBox agent, who really helped us to understand the amazing work that they do.  It costs about £500 to send a Box and this concert raised enough for two boxes which is an amazing achievement.  So a special thank-you to Helena Sewell whose original idea it was and who together with Daphne West put together a most enjoyable programme.  Thank you to all of you who took part, especially former Cambridge organ scholar Alex West who came all the way from Exmouth to accompany many of the pieces and also made Christow Church’s organ sound like it has rarely sounded before!

Confirmation Service – November 2010

I am beginning to receive enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children for this coming November.  Confirmation, as the name suggests, is about confirming the faith into which we were baptised or christened when we were too young to be aware of what was going on.  When we are confirmed, we affirm our acceptance of the Christian faith, the Bishop lays hands on us and we are then invited to receive the consecrated bread and wine at Holy Communion services.  We prepare ourselves for this by joining a small group of like-minded people to explore various aspects of the Christian faith.  For those who were not baptised as infants, it is also possible to be baptised as an adult or child, and to be confirmed on the same day.

Deanery Service at the Cathedral 2010

Every other year we have the opportunity to gather in the wonderful surroundings of Exeter with other churches from across Kenn Deanery for a special service that we plan and devise ourselves.  This year’s will be on Sunday 23^rd May at 5.30 pm – so please make a note of it in your diaries or on your calendars now.   Andrew Maries is helping a group of people from across the Deanery to plan the service and there will also be the opportunity to sing in the choir or play in a music group.  If you would like to be part of that, there will be rehearsals on Sundays 9^th and 16^th May at 3.00 pm at Starcross Parish Church.  Just turn up to sing or play and, if you need transport, get in touch with Jane Inwood (252519).

The theme of the service is the Day of Pentecost – and we are hoping that each church in the Deanery will produce a banner or flag to display at the service – it can be cloth or paper with some design relating to the theme of the Holy Spirit – wind, fire or flames, or colours of red, white and gold.  Something big and simple – and if you think you can offer some help or ideas with this, please speak to me or to your churchwardens.

Annual Church Meetings

All parishioners are invited to attend our Annual Church Meetings:

Bridford                        Wednesday 21^st April at 2.30 pm in Church

Dunsford                       Wednesday 21^st April at 7.30 pm in Church

Dunchideock                 Monday 26^th April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall

Christow                       Thursday 29^th March at 7.30 pm in Church

All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches.

Archdeacons’ Visitation 2010

This year’s service with the Archdeacon will be on Thursday 6^th May at 7.30 pm in Exeter Cathedral and will take the form of Choral Evensong.  All are welcome.

From The Registers

Funerals

March 19^th                                  Eileen Bocock (Doddiscombsleigh)

March 22^nd           Margaret Barr (Dunchideock)

We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) - but if I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

Graham Mayer

March

The earthquake that devastated Haiti, still very much in our minds and hearts nearly two months after the event, re-opened our eyes to a number of things.  We were reminded of the fragility of the world on which we live.  When the solid ground beneath their feet started moving an hour or so before sunset on just another hot tropical afternoon, followed by a series of further shocks that brought down equally solid buildings in which people were just going about their normal business, civilised life as they knew it in the poorest country in the western world collapsed as well.  Millions of people were in a stroke killed, maimed, crushed, trapped, bereaved and their lives devastated on an unimaginable scale.

But through the instant attention of the media we were at once caught up in it too, and so we also saw a world-wide desire to respond, rescue, help, donate and also share the anger and frustration that the aid was not getting to where it was needed as fast as it should have done.  To see a people suffering in this way, whatever their colour, class or creed, whatever the defects of their political system and way of life, evoked the deepest of responses based on our common humanity.  They are people just like us and they desperately needed and still need our help.

There were also other reactions.  Out on a limb were the voices of a few claiming that this was a judgment sent by God to punish the people for their evil and corrupt lifestyle.  Then there were those who triumphantly paraded it as another good reason for not believing in an all-loving and all-powerful God.  The fact is that Haiti lies near a fault-line where two sections of the earth’s crust meet and grind past each other in opposite directions.  Stress builds up and eventually lets rip with bursts of energy resulting in earth tremors.  Occasionally they are very severe, the last two major ones in Haiti being recorded in 1751 and 1842.

That is what the world we live in is like, full of challenges and imperfections that require all our human toil and struggle, resources and ingenuity, to overcome and contain.  We might wonder why God, if he does exist and if he is all good, all-loving and all powerful, did not create heaven on earth for us his creatures.  The fact is that he did not and nothing in this world or in this life is or ever will be perfect.  So if we believe that God does exist, and that he is all good, all-loving and all-powerful, we also have to come to a sense of what his purposes might be.  And if God’s Son is the Saviour of the world, and if the salvation that he provides does not include round the clock global protection against any evil that may befall us, we have to come to a sense of what his salvation is all about.

This is not easy for any of us to do, and we should be aware of those think they can provide glib explanations, either for horrors of this magnitude, or of the regular daily experiences of tragedy, disease and suffering that are around us all the time.  The Bible certainly does not try to offer any easy answers.  On the contrary, the Bible tends to reflect and express the pain of those who suffer, and much of the Old Testament records the sufferings of God’s chosen people, as slaves in Egypt, or later as a conquered people in exile and in the days of Jesus as a downtrodden people suffering under the occupying armies of a foreign colonial power.

That was the context in which Jesus decided one day to preach in his local synagogue on one the people’s favourite texts, from the prophet Isaiah:

The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,

because he has anointed me

to announce good news to the poor.

He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives

and recovery of sight to the blind,

to let the oppressed go free,

to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.

For a people who never doubted or questioned the existence of God, the promise of an anointed king who would release them from captivity and set them free from their oppression would have been deeply comforting, and so this passage was often chosen as a reading.  What took them by surprise were the opening words of the sermon that followed: ‘Today in your hearing this scripture has been fulfilled’.

This passage in Luke’s gospel points clearly to Jesus himself as ‘the anointed one’ – in Hebrew ‘the Messiah’ and in Greek ‘the Christ’ – also referred to by other titles such as ‘the Son of God’ or ‘the Son of Man’.  The gospels also make it clear that the salvation he has in mind has nothing to do with political revolution or regime change.  Neither is it simply about personal salvation or getting to heaven.  Salvation is about transformation and healing in its widest sense.  Salvation is about the transformation and healing of all of us as individuals, of all of us collectively as families, as society, as people interacting and building a life together, and of creation as a whole.

As we and all humankind continue to struggle with the challenges and imperfections of this world and our daily lives, so we see the signs and fruits of transformation, signs and fruits, if you like, of the kingdom of God that Jesus constantly spoke about.  Let the children come to me, he said, rather than shun them, brutalise them or dismiss them until they had become like adults, which was the way they were usually treated and still are in some places.  Jesus attributed full human dignity and respect to other classes of people who were downtrodden in the society of his day: the sick, the lame, the blind, the deaf, the disfigured and also the women.  He showed himself far more inclined to forgive and have mercy, rather than condemn.  Judge not, he said, lest you be judged yourself, recognising that a change in social attitudes and prejudices can only come from a change within us, not by legislation from outside.

Our response to the appalling tragedy experienced by people in Haiti is also a sign of transformation.  Love and compassion and a generous response to the needs of others lie at the heart of the Christian gospel and they work powerfully for the changing of the world in which we live.  They also reflect the nature of God himself and act as channels for his love and power in the very imperfect and challenging world in which we have to spend our lives.

Special events during March

Mothering Sunday – 14^th March at 10.00 am – Ashton and Dunsford

We celebrate mothering and parenting of all kinds, past and present, on Mothering Sunday.  This year it falls on 14^th March and there will be special Mothering Sunday Services for all our villages at Ashton and Dunsford Churches at 10.00 am.  All are welcome.

Choral Evensong – Passion Sunday – 21^st March at 6.30 pm - Dunsford

The good old Prayer Book Evensong still remains a popular form of worship – not necessarily every week – but certainly on special occasions.  Passion Sunday has a special place in the church calendar as we look ahead to commemorating the events of Holy Week and Easter, helping us once again to ‘survey the wondrous Cross on which the Prince of Glory died’.  This is a Group Service and all are welcome to attend and, if so inclined, to join the choir for the occasion.  For further details of the choir practice, please contact Ivor Pincombe on 252531. 

This year’s Lent Course

I am leading a Lent Course this year starting Friday 26^th February at 10.30 am and then on Thursday mornings 10.30-12.00 for the remaining four weeks until March 25^th.  We shall be looking at one of the leading yet somewhat controversial founders of the Christian faith, born as Saul of Tarsus and known better as St Paul.  If, like me, you are puzzled by Paul, come and join the rest of us in the first instance at The Spinney in Bridford by kind invitation of Francis and Daphne Leversedge.  For later weeks, the venue may change, so please phone or e-mail first to find out.

Lent Lunches

In Dunsford Lent Lunches are being held on Wednesdays at 12.30 pm at 9 Brownings Mead, by kind invitation of Cecily Tripp.

Palm Sunday – 28^th March – 10.00 am – Christow and Dunsford

The story of the Passion will be read in dramatic form and Palm Crosses will be blessed and given out at these services on Palm Sunday:

There will also be 8.30 am Holy Communion on Palm Sunday at Dunchideock and Doddiscombsleigh.

Confirmation Service

I am beginning to receive enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children.  Confirmation, as the name suggests, is about confirming the faith into which we were baptised or christened when we were too young to be aware of what was going on.  When we are confirmed, we affirm our commitment to the Christian faith, the Bishop lays hands on us and we are then invited to receive the consecrated bread and wine at Holy Communion services.  During the period of preparation, usually undertaken in a small group, there will be an opportunity to explore various aspects of the Christian faith.  For those who were not baptised as infants, it is also possible to be baptised as an adult or child, and to be confirmed on the same occasion.  This year the Confirmation Service for our area is planned for November in one of our local churches.  If you think this might be for you, or you would like to know more, please get in touch.

Annual Church Meetings

All parishioners are invited to attend our Annual Church Meetings:

Ashton                          Wednesday 24^th March at 3.00 pm in the Village Hall

Bridford                        Wednesday 21^st April at 2.30 pm in Church

Christow                       Thursday 29^th April at 7.30 pm in Church

Doddiscombsleigh         Thursday 25^th March at 7.30 pm in Church

Dunchideock                 Monday 26^th April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall

Dunsford                       Wednesday 21^st April at 7.30 pm in Church

All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches.

From The Registers

Funerals

February 10^th           Edith Pegler (Dunsford)

February 12^th        Tim Maggs (Interment of Ashes at Dunsford)

February 17^th        Rosie Gillett (Interment of Ashes at Dunchideock)

We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have died.

Rectory Hours

The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.

Graham Mayer

February

You may know the story of ‘The Emperor's New Clothes’ written by Hans Christian Andersen in 1837 and then re-written in song form by Frank Loesser for Danny Kaye in a film that was based loosely on the Danish story-teller’s life.  As it was easier to fit the word ‘king’ into the lyrics rather than emperor, the song ended up being about a slightly less important man.  However it did not change the impact of the story and it gave us some wonderfully memorable lines.

The story draws a sharp contrast between adult pretence and hypocrisy, on the one hand, and the plain-speaking honesty of a child on the other.    It’s all a scam that two swindlers play on a king by convincing him that he is wearing a magic suit of clothes when in fact he has nothing on at all.  They persuade him that if he was a wise man he would be able to see that he was wearing the most beautiful clothes, whereas if he was a fool he would appear to be naked.  Naturally the king, not wanting to look a fool, gets taken in.  So do the queen, the courtiers and all the people in the land - so much so that the king decides to wear it for a royal parade.  However there is a boy in the crowds who has not heard about the magic suit and does not know what he is supposed to see.  He looks at the king horrified.  He cannot deny what his own eyes tell him.  The king is in the all-together, and it’s altogether too chilly a morn!

Children are good at telling it how it is, but for adults it does not always come so easily.  Politicians and people in public office seem to find it especially hard, although it’s not entirely their fault.  In the Bible, especially in the Old Testament, the men who had the courage to tell it how it was were called prophets and they often  had a rough ride.  Jeremiah found himself thrown to the bottom of a dry well for his inability to keep quiet.  They also had to contend with what the Bible calls ‘false prophets’, the advisors who spun a sweet web of lies to keep the leaders and the public happy.  What the true prophets did was to look at what was happening around them, as it were, with the eyes of God and speak the truth as they saw it.

If that meant telling everyone that they had better change a few things, like their life style of complacent greed and excess or like showing more compassion to the poor, hungry and deprived, then they told them.  If that meant showing how the collapse of moral standards, and the relentless pursuit of personal pleasure and satisfaction, was undermining society, making them vulnerable to foreign attack, then they told them.  The fact that their prophecies came true makes us think that they had the ability to foretell the future.  What they actually had was the insight to tell forth the present.  They told it how it was, and they could see the likely consequences.

Today we are hearing the voices of prophets warning us about nothing less than global catastrophe.  We are devouring the world’s resources and releasing carbon into the atmosphere in a way that is leading to an unprecedented level of global warming.  Some scientists predict that sea levels could rise by six feet by the end of the century.  In fact, if you want to get really scared about the kind of world your grandchildren’s grandchildren will live in, there is no shortage of material and worst-case scenarios out there to scare you.      

But while some of the scientists are jumping up and down and shouting dire warnings at us, the worlds’ leaders who gathered with their entourage at Copenhagen a few weeks ago, at great expense to us and the future of the world, do not seem to be so bothered. If they were, we might imagine that they would have been more determined to reach some decisions about cutting emissions and helping the poorer nations cope with the impact.  We are left wondering whether it really is as serious as we are led to believe?

Robin Murch is someone who believes it is.  He recently sent me his report and reflections on the global situation arising out of his participation in Blue Wave Day. Hundreds went to London in early December all dressed in blue in order to encourage our leaders during their discussions in Copenhagen.  While I confess that I remain somewhat puzzled both about the science, the politics and what we in the comfort of our homes should be doing about it, Robin has some very clear views and so allow me to leave you with his prophetic remarks which you will find after my article.

Special events during February

Taizé Style Worship – Christow Church - Sunday 7^th February at 6.00 pm

This month we are providing another opportunity to experience worship using music and songs developed by the Taizé Community in France.  The songs are short and simple, and very easily learned with very accessible and often lovely melodies.  The setting is simple and relaxed and between the songs there will be readings, prayers and short periods of silence for reflection.  Christow Church - Sunday 7^th February at 6.00 pm.  Come along from 5.30 onwards and there will be a chance to learn some of the songs.  

Ash Wednesday

Wed 17^th February at 10.00 am in Christow / 7.30 pm in Dunchideock

To get Lent off to a start, there will be Ash Wednesday services at Christow at 10.00 in the morning and at Dunchideock at 7.30 in the evening.

Looking ahead to Lent

Most weeks at our church services, we find ourselves trying to follow a reading from one of the Epistles of St Paul.  Whereas the gospels of Mathew, Mark and Luke only get a good airing once every three years – in Years A, B and C respectively - and John just has to fit in around them, passages from Paul’s letters are read constantly.  Is that because he was the true founder of Christianity?  Is he the most important writer in the New Testament?  Should his letters be treated as sacred text or are they all past their use-by date?  Paul is not the easiest writer to understand, so I propose to use Lent this year to explore the man and his letters.  If interested, please join me on Thursday mornings 10.30 – 12.00 starting on February 25^th.  We meet at The Spinney, Bridford, by kind invitation of Francis and Daphne Leversedge.

PCC Meetings

PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:

Dunchideock – Monday 8^th February at 7.30 pm at The Beeches

Dunsford – Wednesday 10^th February at 7.30 pm at Christow Rectory

Bridford - Wednesday 24^th February at 2.30 pm at The Spinney

Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 25^th February at 7.30 pm at Oakley

From The Registers

Funerals

December 23^rd      Florence Evans (Christow)

January 13^th                               George Hamlyn (Christow)

January 27^th                   Ken Kirby (Christow)

We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

I am often at my desk on weekday mornings from 10.00-12.00 and so that is usually the best time to contact me (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) - but if I am not available to take a call, the answer phone is on at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or you can e-mail me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

Graham Mayer

THE BLUE WAVE REPORT

In December, Robin Murch invited people to join him on the Blue Wave Train.  Now he reports and reflects on the experience. Robin is a retired Anglican priest living in Dawlish who regularly assists at church services in the Teign Valley Group  There is also a report with pictures on the Exeter Diocese web site, well worth visiting.

The Blue train from Plymouth, Newton Abbot and Exeter took 450 ‘prophets’ to London on 5^th December to join an amazing march of 50,000 people from Hyde Park to Parliament Square. It was well organised and everyone was dressed colourfully in blue.  It was fun and inspiring and happily choked up Central London for a couple of hours.

It was very plain that a lot of people care about the future of our planet and about the Copenhagen Conference as a vital moment in World History – it is happening as I write.  These prophets all wished to give support to our World Leaders in their endeavour to reach the best decisions for our future.  Whether they will or not, time will tell, but it felt that we were now at a special moment in history – what we might call a kairos moment.

A kairos moment is a moment given by God that changes the course of history.  The insignificant birth of Jesus in Bethlehem was such a moment for those few who were there – shepherds, visiting wise men and no doubt several locals - those who had eyes to see.  Christmas is now well behind us – but we celebrate it each year as the greatest kairos moment ever.

We go on having kairos moments even today, such as the European Ecumenical Assembly in Basel 1989 when thousands of Christians, including myself, came together for ten days and anticipated a God-given moment that was coming. It did.  The Berlin Wall came down later that year.  Another kairos moment was the end of apartheid in South Africa.

So back in December I went with a train load of ‘prophets’ to London.  Most were Christian people of one kind or another moved by the Spirit - a spirit fuelled by faith, compassion and justice given to them by God. They had a profound thoughtfulness about climate change and the future of our world.  Such people are much needed now.

We all know that we can not go on as we are.  Oil, water and food could well run out at some point in the not so distant future.  Climate change is already happening now but come what may the planet will go on.  But what about human society? What will be our fate?  These are uncomfortable thoughts!  Our first fearful reaction might be to protect ourselves and our children - grab all we can for us and the Devil take the hindmost!  This is an instinctive survival reaction.  We can anticipate many people and nations will do just that.

That is why we need plenty of prophets to lead us from selfish destruction to a different world: prophets who are loaded with hope showing us that a better world is possible; pioneering prophets who will reveal a better world, a world inhabited by a united and caring humanity living on a sustainable planet. God has given us and them the blueprint of this in the Bible.

Where are such prophets to be found? Who will encourage them?  Who will share good theology with them to support them in their task?  Who will pray for them?  The obvious answer is God’s Church.  We are all called to be part of it‘s fellowship.  Whether we ride on a Blue Wave train or not, our calling to be an active part of the Kingdom of God could not be clearer.

Robin Murch.

January

The other day, feeling a need to chill out after a fairly demanding couple of weeks, I decided that I would sit down and watch one of my favourite films. It was my day off, it was pouring with rain outside and there was no point in even thinking about going out.

Having recently re-read the book, I wanted to see again Robert de Niro’s superb performance as Monroe Stahr in the film version of Scott Fitzgerald’s last but unfinished novel ‘The Last Tycoon’. He plays a rich and powerful but deeply lonely Hollywood film magnate who falls for a young lady whose delicately beautiful features remind him of his late wife. The fascinating insights into the working of the American film industry in the 1930s combined with a poignantly impossible love affair – she is already engaged to be married – bring out the complexities and contradictions in our human nature. Stahr is a man who so far has managed to keep the vulnerable emotional side of his nature firmly subservient to his hard, ruthless business role, and the film tracks what happens when he loses control and the balance is powerfully disturbed.

So I went upstairs to dig around in a dusty pile of old video tapes, switched on the video cassette recorder, wondering if would still work, and was at once shocked by the poor quality of the film on the screen. After a couple of years of digital television and even longer of watching DVDs, it was quite an eye-opener to be reminded of the quality of television we happily watched for the best part of thirty years.

And for those of us whose lives and memories go back even further, we can probably remember being just as satisfied then with a small black and white screen with 405 lines as we are today with widescreen digital colour. Just like the high-jump on the athletics field, the bar has continually been raised as more advanced technologies have become available. Today we have Blu-Ray and High Definition on offer and as the prices come down so another new technology will become commonplace.

The difficulty is not jumping higher – the difficulty would be to go back to where we used to be. And it’s not just about home entertainment. Our expectations are higher in every aspect of our lives. Whether it’s communications, medical treatment, sport, education, transport, business, agriculture or manufacturing, whether it’s the home or the workplace, the road or the leisure centre, whether you are involved in highly skilled or the most menial of tasks, through technology and the use of energy our world goes on advancing at an ever increasing rate.

The question that confronts us now is whether the day of reckoning will be upon us sooner or later. Will the generations that follow us be paying the price for our self-indulgence? The science may be inexact and much of the forecasting guesswork, but there’s no escaping the fact that our lifestyle now stands accused of threatening to destroy the delicate balance upon which our future survival as a species on this planet would seem to depend.

The evidence looks pretty strong. The climate of the world appears to be changing. Because of human activity and because we have been tossing more and more carbon emissions into the atmosphere, the levels are increasing at an unprecedented rate and temperatures are rising. We know that there are signs of this around. The seas are warmer, glaciers are melting and there are going to be faster shipping routes from Europe to Asia because summer sea ice in the Arctic is now nearly half of what it used to be. Even though the projections remain uncertain, even though the world’s climate system is highly complex and even though there may be other factors of which we are not fully aware, some kind of disturbance is definitely taking place and it would be mad to ignore it.

From the industrial revolution until the 1950s, our cities were often paralysed by a lethal combination of chimney smoke and damp foggy conditions creating what was known as smog, so thick that the bus conductors used to walk in front with a torch to guide the driver along the road and so toxic that people died of it. A law was passed, smokeless fuel became compulsory and the problem was solved.

Some people think that this is what we need to do now only at a global level. Pass a few laws, get some agreements and the problem could be solved. However, it does not feel quite as simple over the question of carbon emissions and climate change. For a start, not everyone is convinced and there are powerful vested interests out there to play it all down. Our lifestyle stands accused, but the evidence is complex and may not be strong enough to find it guilty beyond all reasonable doubt. We also know that our lifestyle has brought us unquestionable benefits that we will not easily be willing to give up.

So is this just a matter of human concern or is there a bigger picture? The challenges and imperfections of the world in which we live have from time immemorial spurred the human species on to make discoveries and find the means to overcome them. So far the natural laws and resources of the world have provided the answers and there is every reason to have confidence and trust that they will continue to do so. That is what evolution calls us to do.

For some the bigger picture is that God created the universe and placed us here in this world, a tiny planet in the midst of nothing with a thin film of life on its surface. Our purpose is to spend the time allocated to us meaningfully, to overcome our inborn self-centred impulses, play the part that we were born to play and to grow in love of God and of one another.

Within this belief system there is certainly a sense of responsibility for the care and well-being of the world that has been entrusted to us. Excesses of destruction and consumption driven by human greed invariably lead to disaster. It comes upon us like a judgment that is built into the system itself, whether on a personal, communal, national or global level. That could well be the judgement that today’s prophets see hanging over us, in which case it could well be time at the beginning of a new year to make some clear resolutions about turning around and changing our ways.

Getting to Church this Christmas - as some of you receive this magazine before Christmas, here are some reminders:

• Carol Services
Ashton – Sunday 20th December at 4.00 pm
Dunchideock - Sunday 20th December at 5.00 pm
Christow– Sunday 20th December at 6.00 pm
Dunsford – Sunday 20th December at 6.30 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – Monday 21st December at 7.00 pm
– once again taking the form of a Village Nativity with Carols
Bridford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 6.00 pm

• Crib Service
Dunsford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 4.00 pm

• Midnight Mass
Ashton/Doddiscombsleigh/Dunchideock/Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm

• Christmas Morning Services
Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am
Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

Looking back to Christmas
You may read this before Christmas is over, but thank you to those who have worked hard to prepare and decorate our churches for the Christmas services – with trees, flowers, candles, cribs and everything else that combines to provide a seasonal atmosphere for our worship. Thank you also to who have played, read or provided any other special input into our Christingle and Carol Services. At a busy time of year, all this extra work and time that is given is much appreciated. Thank you also to our Bell Ringers – not just at Christmas – but for their time and commitment throughout the year that are appreciated by so many.

Sunday after Christmas – Sunday 27th December
There will be a Group Eucharist at Dunsford at 10.00 am

The Year Ahead
PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Christow – Monday 18th January at 7.45 pm at The Rectory
Ashton – Wednesday 20th January at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Dunchideock – Monday 8th February at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Dunsford – Wednesday 10th February at 7.30 pm at Christow Rectory
Bridford - Wednesday 24th February at 2.30 pm at The Spinney
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 25th February at 7.30 pm at Oakley

From The Registers
Baptisms
November 29th Anna Mary Ellis (Dunchideock)
Weddings
December 5th Jonathan Brunner and Suzanna Marr (Ashton)
December 12th Jeffrey Jenner and Elizabeth Spall (Dunsford)
December 19th Paul Campton and Charlotte Bloomfield (Ashton)
Funerals
November 13th Andrew Preston (Interment at Christow)
November 25th Hannah Banks (Doddiscombsleigh – Funeral at Crediton)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-12.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very happy and fruitful New Year. Graham Mayer

December

Call me naïve if you like but, not having been on a Holy Land Tour, I have never seen modern day Bethlehem.  Instead for many years I carried around in my mind’s eye the image of Bethlehem that we receive from carols and nativity plays that is closer to the world of wonder and Walt Disney than to anything resembling real life.  Only at a relatively late stage did I begin to register the harsher realities, not to mention the physical discomforts and the psychological trauma experienced by the people whose story we read about in the gospels.

Those of you who have been there know that Bethlehem is a real place inhabited by real people struggling to make the best of their lives just as many others do in today’s world.  Not so long ago, pictures were regularly shown on our screens of people in a battle-torn city, victims of bombs and bullets, death and destruction.  Even in more settled times, it looks no different from thousands of ordinary towns and suburbs across the world.  It bears no resemblance to that little town of the carol – how still we see thee lie! - and nothing like the image many of us retain in the unquestioning recesses of our memories.

Those who visit the Holy Land today find that many of the people living ordinary lives in Israel, whatever their race or religion, simply want peace and a chance to prosper, as many of us would in a similar situation.  The militant minority that have old scores to settle or who just want to continue struggling are possibly a bit like the first century nationalist Zealots seeking to undermine the rule of the Roman invaders, all part of the scene and the context in which God invited Mary and Joseph to bear and nurture his Son.

If bombs and bullets had been available, the Zealots would have used them in their struggle against the Roman occupying army, and it was the Romans who decided to hold some kind of national census at that time, possibly for taxation purposes.  As it turned out, this fitted well with God’s purposes.  Joseph, a carpenter in Nazareth in the northern province of Galilee, still had ancestry, and possibly land and family, 80 miles away in Bethlehem.  He had no choice but to make the arduous journey with Mary but in so doing fulfilled, not just the edict of the Roman emperor, but what the prophets had foretold and what the Jews all believed, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

It’s not easy for us to escape the soft cosy image of the birth in Bethlehem that gets re-created each year through our carols and nativity settings.  But if we allow our imagination to re-create instead something of what it was like in reality, we will find something that will give us far more food for thought.  We will certainly find something more wonderful and mysterious and more deeply satisfying than the consumer winter festival that Christmas has become for many people.

As a step in that direction, you might like to cast your eyes over this unusual version of a well-known carol - though I don’t recommend you try and sing it – rather read it as a poem:

          Once in Judah’s least known city

                             Stood a boarding house with back door shed,

where an almost single-parent mother

tried to find her new-born son a bed.

Mary’s mum and dad went wild

when they heard their daughter had a child.

He brought into earth a sense of heaven:

Lord of none and yet Lord of all;

And his shelter was always unstable

For his mission was beyond recall.

With the poor, with those least holy,

Christ the King was pleased to live so lowly.

Not in that uncharted stable

with the village gossips standing by

but in heaven we shall see him –

which may not be up above the sky –

if, in love for friend and stranger,

we embrace the contents of the manger.

(Reproduced with permission copyright © 1997 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G51 3UU, Scotland)

Getting to Church this Christmas

All our village churches offer a full range of services this Christmas:

·        Christingle Services

Dunsford – December 6^th at 10.00 am

Christow – December 6^th at 5.00 pm

Bridford – December 6^th at 5.00 pm

Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 3^rd December at 6.30 pm

Dunchideock – December 13^th at 5.00 pm

Please note that this year the Ashton service will be held jointly at Christow.

·        Carol Services

Ashton – Sunday 20^th December at 4.00 pm

Dunchideock - Sunday 20^th December at 5.00 pm

Christow– Sunday 20^th December at 6.00 pm

Dunsford – Sunday 20^th December at 6.30 pm

Doddiscombsleigh – Monday 21^st December at 7.00 pm

– once again taking the form of a Village Nativity with Carols

Bridford – Christmas Eve, 24^th December at 6.00 pm

·        Crib Service

Dunsford – Christmas Eve, 24^th December at 4.00 pm

·        Midnight Mass

Ashton/Doddiscombsleigh/Dunchideock/Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm

·        Christmas Morning Services

Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am

Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

Sunday after Christmas

There will be a Group Service at Dunsford on Sunday 27^th December at 10.00 am.

From The Registers

Weddings

November 7^th        Matthew Fassnidge and Edith Macgill (Ashton)

Funerals

November 16^th      Amy Saunders (Dunsford)

We extend out sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-12.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.

Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

                                                                                                         Graham Mayer

October

October 4^th is St Francis’ Day, and the name of St Francis has for many years been associated with the prayer that begins: Make me a channel of your peace.  When Margaret Thatcher took it into her head to recite that prayer on the threshold of 10 Downing Street thirty years ago in October 1979, after winning her first General Election, not everyone appreciated it but those who heard it are unlikely to forget.

But putting that moment aside, the Prayer of St Francis remains very popular.  It expresses the longing, the aspiration, that those things that spoil life – hatred, injury, doubt, despair, darkness and sadness – may be replaced by love, forgiveness, faith, hope, light and joy.  And when we pray it, we are praying that we may be part of that process, that we may be channels of all those good things that are summed up in the word ‘peace’.

It is a sad fact that the world is not short of people whose lives are dominated by hatred and who seek to inflict injury on those that they regard as their enemies.  They may be a small minority, but they can cause a great deal of terror and harm.  Like the  alarming plot revealed last month at Woolwich Crown Court  when three men were found guilty of attempted murder with their plan to kill thousands of people by blowing up passenger planes over the Atlantic with home-made liquid bombs disguised as drinks,  Almost every day we hear of yet another suicide bomber in Iraq or Afghanistan killing or maiming innocent people.  These people think, or have been persuaded to think, that they are fighting a holy war, a crusade against the infidel.  At the same time, we read reports that militant rabbis in Israel want to inspire their army to fight with a similar religious authority.  It suggests that the situation in the Middle East could become even more volatile.

Praying for peace is important, and even more so is praying for peacemakers.  In spite of the scary stories that are constantly fed to us by the media, peace is what most people in the Middle East want.  Those who travel to Israel generally find a people who live peace-loving lives.  And many ordinary people in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere simply want to be able to get on with their lives.  They want to be free to bring up their children in the way they know best and celebrate all that is good and beautiful in life.  We do not hear their voices as much as we might.

The Prayer of St Francis makes all this much more immediate.  Someone once said that you should not pray about a problem unless you are prepared to be part of the answer.  That is precisely where this prayer begins.  Make me a channel of your peace – starting where we are in our lives.  By asking to become a channel clearly, we say that we want to be part of the answer and the place to start is among the people that we meet and deal with.  We also need to be sure that we do not lose sight of our common human links with people of different cultures, faiths and outlooks whether they are our neighbours here or elsewhere.

Praying for peace is also important because, without the power of God to overcome hatred, defeat despair and cope with sadness, we shall never get there.  Love, faith, forgiveness, hope, light and joy do not often come naturally.  They have to be built and nurtured and can easily be destroyed by selfishness.  Nobody is sure whether St Francis really wrote the prayer that he is associated with, but that hardly matters.  The content of the message is usually more important than the name of the messenger, and we might imagine that he would have been the first to agree with that.

Special occasions in October

Harvest Thanksgiving Services

While we are celebrating the good things in life at our Harvest Thanksgiving Services, we also remember those people who rarely enjoy all the things that we take so much for granted.  We hear almost daily of people who struggle in different parts of the world with their daily survival and so our Harvest Celebrations are also an opportunity to make a generous offering to those who have so little. 

Come and join us at

Ashton      

Sunday 4^th October at 5.00 pm followed by Harvest Tea

Dunsford

          Sunday 4^th October at 10.00 a.m. for a Family Service

and also at 6.30 p.m. for Harvest Evensong followed by Harvest Supper

          Bridford

Sunday 11^th October at 11.30 a.m. followed by Harvest Lunch

Dunchideock

          Sunday 11^th October at 6.00 p.m. followed by Harvest Supper

Offerings of flowers and produce are much appreciated for decorating the churches and are then used for the benefit of others.

St Petrock’s Harvest Festival Wish List
We have been advised by St Petrock’s Centre for the Homeless in Exeter that they are in need of the following items.  If you would like to bring any of these as a Harvest Offering, we will see that they go to where they are needed.
* Coffee   * Tea    * White granulated sugar/ soft brown sugar

* Orange squash/fruit juices  * Cup-a-soups (esp. tomato)   * Tinned fruit
* Tinned meat/fish  * Tinned custard/puddings   * Dried pasta, pulses, beans
* Packaged breakfast cereals  * Pasta sauces/curry sauces
* Dried fruit, sultanas, raisins   * Jams, spreads, marmalade   * Biscuits

* Toiletries (toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, shower gel, shaving foam,
disposable razors, suntan lotion, etc.)

* Rucksacks     *Wet weather gear    * Sleeping Bags    * Men’s Boots

If you are able to out them in a bag or box marked for St Petrock’s that would be helpful.

Shoebox Sundays – Operation Christmas Child

Bring your shoeboxes to a 10.00 am Service on one of the following:

October 18^th at Dunchideock and Ashton

October 25^th at Christow and Dunsford

November 1^st at Christow, Dunsford and Doddiscombsleigh

Bridford Boxes can be left with the Churchwardens or brought to Christow.

Leaflets are now available for Operation Christmas Child and the latest dates for bringing in your shoeboxes are as above.  On those days, at the 10.00 am services, the shoeboxes that have been collected will be blessed and sent on their way.  Shoeboxes can also be collected in other ways – please contact Annabelle Hofmann (252961) for further information.

All Saints Special – Sunday 1^st November – 10.00 am at Christow Church

There will be a special All-Age Service at Christow Church on All Saints Day 1^st November.  The word ‘saint’ comes from the New Testament where it was used simply as a way of talking about Christians – it derives from the Latin word ‘sanctus’ meaning ‘holy’ or ‘set apart’.  So it was used to identify those people who had made a commitment to the Christian faith and set out on a journey through life with God shaped by prayer and the teachings and example of Jesus.  In later years the meaning became narrowed in the Church to designate those who set an outstanding example of Christian discipleship, and that led in some people’s minds to the false idea that saints were exceptionally good people, if not perfect people.  The fact is that the Saints were not at all perfect and just as much sinners as the rest of us.  So on All Saints Day we have an opportunity to remember that all Christians are saints in their commitment to a life that looks beyond mere secular, worldly and self-centred preoccupations, and also sinners in that we constantly fail to fulfil that commitment.

Teign Valley Youth Project

By the time you read this, we shall have welcomed Jason Bradshaw who is joining us as a trainee youth worker.  Jason comes to us from Maidstone in Kent after a number of years working among adults with learning difficulties.  He has a wide range of experience and interests, lots of ideas and is keen to work in our churches and among the young people of our area.  He will be working alongside Jessica Harrison, who is staying on from last year and takes the position of senior worker.  As Jason does not drive, we are looking for suitable accommodation for him in Christow, Bridford or Dunsford.  If you have a spare room and are to consider accommodating him in return for a financial contribution, please get in touch with me as soon as possible for further details.

Confirmation

Enquiries about Confirmation in 2010 can be made at any time by contacting me by phone, e-mail or in person (see below).

PCC Meetings

A reminder for PCC members of the next meetings:

Christow              Monday 5^th October at 7.30 pm at 1 Court Orchard

Bridford              Thursday 22^nd October at 2.30 pm at Connetts Cottage

Doddicombsleigh Thursday 22^nd October at 7.30 pm at Oakley

Dunchideock       Monday 9^th November at 7.30 pm at The Beeches

From The Registers

Baptisms

September 6^th       George Costiff (Bridford)

Weddings

September 12^th     Christopher Matts and Emma Webber (Dunchideock)

Funerals

August 26^th                    Kathleen Hookway (Interment of Ashes at Dunchideock)

September 3^rd       Lesley Borst-Smith (Doddiscombsleigh)

We extend our sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-12.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.

                                                                                                          Graham Mayer

September

This month it is story time – and I am grateful to Teresa Sawyer, churchwarden at Doddiscombsleigh, who sent it to me. It reminds us, as many people know from their own experiences, how God sometimes steps into people’s lives in surprising ways when they least expect him.

The man slowly looked up. This was a woman clearly accustomed to the finer things of life. Her coat was new. She looked like she had never missed a meal in her life. His first thought was that she wanted to make fun of him, like so many others had done before. "Leave me alone," he growled but, to his amazement, she stayed and just stood smiling at him. "Are you hungry?" she asked. "No," he answered sarcastically. "I've just come from dining with the Prime Minister. Now go away."

But she didn’t go away and suddenly the man felt a hand under his arm. "What are you doing, lady?" the man asked angrily. "I said to leave me alone." Just then a policeman came up. "Is there any problem, madam?" he asked. "No problem here, officer," the woman answered. "I'm just trying to get this man to his feet. Will you help me?"

The officer looked puzzled. "That's old Jack. He's been round here for a couple of years. What do you want with him?" "See that cafeteria over there?" she asked. "I'm going to get him something to eat and get him out of the cold for awhile." "Are you crazy, lady?" the homeless man resisted. "I don't want to go in there!"

Then he felt strong hands grab his other arm and lift him up. "Let me go, officer. I didn't do anything." "This sounds like a good deal for you, Jack," he answered. "Don't blow this one." Finally, and with some difficulty, the woman and the police officer got Jack into the cafeteria and sat him at a table in a remote corner.

It was the middle of the morning, so most of the breakfast crowd had already left and the lunch bunch had not yet arrived. The manager strode across the cafeteria and stood by his table. "What's going on here, officer?" he asked. "Is this man in trouble?" "This lady brought this man in here to be fed," the policeman answered.

"Not in here!" the manager replied angrily. "Having a person like that here is bad for business." Old Jack smiled a toothless grin. "See, lady. I told you so. Now if you'll let me go. I didn't want to come here in the first place."

The woman turned to the cafeteria manager and smiled. "Sir, I expect you know the name of Symons and Co., the banking firm down the street?" "Of course I do," the manager answered impatiently. "They hold their weekly meetings in my banquetting rooms." Well, my name is Frances Symons, the Chair of the Company Board". The manager looked down and the woman smiled again. "I thought that might make a difference."

She glanced at the officer who was trying to hide a smile. "Would you care to join us in a cup of coffee and a meal, officer?" "No thanks, madam," the officer replied. "I'm on duty." "Then perhaps a cup of coffee to go on you way with?" The manager went off to fetch the coffee. "You certainly put him in his place," said the officer. "That was not my intention," she replied. "Believe it or not, I have a reason for doing all this."

She sat down at the table opposite her amazed guest. She stared at him intently. "Jack, do you remember me?" Old Jack searched her face with his old, bloodshot eyes. "I think so. I mean, you do look familiar." "I'm a little older perhaps," she said. "and I’ve probably filled out a bit since my younger days when you used to work in here. Do you remember the day I came through that very door, cold and hungry."

The police officer looked startled. He couldn't believe that such a magnificently turned out woman could ever have been hungry. "I was just out of college," she continued. "I came into the city looking for a job, but I couldn't find anything. Eventually I got down to my last pennies. I was kicked out of my rooms and I was out on the streets, one of the city’s homeless. I walked around for days, sleeping under the arches, begging for loose change. One particularly cold day, when I was so desperate, I saw this place and walked in on the off chance that I could get something to eat." Jack’s face lit up with a smile. "Now I remember," he said. "I was behind the serving counter. You came up and asked me if you do some work in exchange for something to eat. I told you that it was against company policy."

"I know," the woman continued. "Then you made me the biggest roast beef sandwich that I had ever seen, gave me a cup of coffee, and told me to go over to a corner table and enjoy it. I was afraid that you would get into trouble. Then, when I looked over and saw you put the price of my food in the till, I knew it would be all right."

"So now you’ve started your own business?" Jack said. "Yes, amazingly I managed to get a job that very afternoon. Over the years I worked hard and eventually I was able to start on my own and, with God’s help, we made a lot of money. But I believe that He’s telling me it’s now time to pay some of it back."

She opened her purse and pulled out a business card. "When you are finished here, I want you to pay a visit to Mr. Lyons, our Human Resources Manager. I'll talk to him and make sure he can find something for you to do around the offices." She smiled. "I think we might even find the funds to get you on your feet, so you can buy some clothes and get a place to live." There were tears in the old man's eyes. "I don’t know what to say" he said. "Don't say anything." the woman answered. "Just thank the God who led me to you."

Later, outside the cafeteria, the officer and the woman paused before going their separate ways.. "Thank you for your help, officer," she said. "On the contrary, madam," he answered. "Thank you. Today I believe that I saw a miracle with my own eyes - something that I will never forget, And thank you for the coffee."

The lesson from this story is that when you "cast your bread upon the waters," you never know how it will be returned to you. God is so big he can cover the whole world with his love and so small he can curl up inside your heart.

August

Bred, wed and dead…or, if you prefer, hatched, matched and dispatched. For some people these are the only times in their lives when they need the services of the man (or woman) who dresses up for the occasion and who otherwise would only have to work one day a week!

Baptism, marriage, funerals are sometimes called the 'Rites of Passage' - so-called because they mark personal moving-on points. Now that we no longer live in a mono-cultural land, and people feel free to do their own thing, it is perhaps surprising that so many want to celebrate them in a Christian context. A significant number of people still look to the Christian faith to provide a God-dimension to their personal events. Even if they rarely darken the doors on other occasions, they still wish to mark these stages of life with prayer and with the services and rituals of the local church.

Or is it so surprising? Perhaps it’s only natural. Certainly the impulse to pray, to cry out to the powers of the universe, whether with thanksgiving and joy or in need and desperation, is a very instinctive one. However, like all our impulses, in order to be fully fruitful, the instinct to pray needs help, training and education in order to grow and become part of a coherent and sustaining outlook on life.

Babies cry or gurgle instinctively, and scream for their needs to be met, but if we remain babies for the rest of our lives, something is clearly not right. Likewise, we need to grow spiritually just as much as we need to grow physically and mentally and, just as our minds and bodies will not grow and develop their full potential without suitable nurture and exercise, so it is with our faith. As they often say, you either use it or lose it.

These days life can sometimes feel pretty impersonal. Whether we are shopping, banking, in hospital, or going on holiday, it is easy to feel as if we are just a number on someone's vast computer. But when we pray, or when we celebrate before God the great stages in our lives, we use our names, and we are known by name. The words of a blessing are directed to each one of us and give a real sense of receiving strength and peace from a source beyond ourselves.

This has always been one of the great insights of Christian belief. Each one of us not only matters but, in some incomprehensible way, is known. Jesus teaches that we are known so well that even the hairs on our head are counted, which might admittedly be easier with some people than with others!

The Church of England, your parish church, affirms this by being available for anyone in the community to mark their own personal occasion. The right of all parishioners to be baptised, married and buried at their parish church is enshrined in our laws. This does not mean that the church is 'open all hours' - the times of these occasions has to be arranged by mutual agreement.

More important, the church in your village also represents the worldwide community of believers. Those who come regularly, or only on occasions of hatching, matching and dispatching, are also members of that community and equally responsible for its continuing life and well-being. The church may feel like 'them and us'. In fact there is no 'them'. It is simply us…and, of course, God.

Special occasions in August


750th Anniversary Special - Sunday 26th July at 10.00 am at Christow
In case you read this before the end of July, a reminder of our Anniversary Special – a Service of Celebration for all the years that the church in Christow has been there at the centre of the village, a place of prayer and worship through all the turbulent times as well as the peaceful times of our history, a place where local families have marked and celebrated key moments in their lives. Many churches in Devon are celebrating a 750th anniversary this year and for Christow the year 1259 is the year that a Vicar of Christow was first recorded and may also be the time when the dedication to St James’ was established. So come and join us for a special celebration at 10.00 am on Sunday 26th July.

Sung Compline at Christow - Sunday 2nd August at 6.00 pm
The ancient service of Compline derives its name from a Latin word meaning ‘completion’ and is still often used, especially in Christian communities, to bring a quiet and reflective end to the day. As we look back over the day, it includes an opportunity for confession and in preparation for the night there are prayers for peace and protection. The style of singing Compline is that of Plainsong, but there are also some suitable well-known hymns, as well as a Psalm and the Nunc Dimittis. Whether you have experienced this before or not, do come along – all are welcome.

Group Choral Evensong – Sunday 16th August at Bridford at 6.00 pm
It may be surprising how many people still enjoy a good old Prayer Book Evensong, not necessarily all the time, but on occasions especially if we can muster a choir to lead the singing. It won’t be like the Cathedral, of course, but still a service to relax into and allow Cranmer’s text to lead us into prayer and contemplation. All are welcome and if anyone would like to be part of the choir please get in touch with Liz Hogg, the organist at Bridford Church (252595).

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
All my copies are now sold, but copies can still be obtained for the full RRP £7.99 at The Old Deanery in Exeter. Published to coincide with the 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter, this new book contains a guide, brief description and colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon.



Group Action Plan
Thank you to all those of you who took the trouble to respond to the letter about our Group Action Plan. We have not yet begun the work of assimilating all the responses, so there is still time to contribute your thoughts and comments – either by using the booklet or in a letter – by the end of August. We welcome all of them, whether in the form of suggestions, puzzled questions or your thinking whether inside or outside the box!

From The Registers
Weddings
July 4th Peter Solly and Nicola White (Christow)
July 11th Kevin Mansfield and Esther Gillett (Dunchideock)

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-12.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can. The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.
Graham Mayer

July

The other day I stumbled across Listmania on the Amazon website. For people who have got the time, here is an opportunity to make a list of your twenty-five favourite books, cds or dvds that you would like to recommend to other people – especially those who share your tastes in music, literature or film. For those unlikely to make it on to Desert Island Discs, it’s also a way of going public with the pieces of music that you could not go on living without, as well as giving Amazon the chance to notch up some more sales.

Some of these lists are actually useful. If you are looking for a list of books that will help you learn Russian, or a guide to the best books on photography, cooking, bonsai or origami, then someone else’s list could set you off on the right track. However the making of lists does not end there. It has now become a huge industry and there are plenty of people around with nothing better to do than make a list of anything under the sun and post it on one of the many list websites.

So if you really want to, you can get to grips with someone else’s research into the ten longest novels ever written in the English language, the ten most stunning Roman Catholic basilicas or ten survival tips for people watching horror movies – just to pick out three at random. For me reading a list of exam howlers or whacky car insurance claims can brighten up a dull afternoon, but I cannot really be bothered to go much further.

Some people, however, seem to be almost addicted to the making of lists. It is said by some that the majority of these are men and that this is a substitute for collecting, but I have seen no statistics to support that hypothesis. But judging by the weird and wonderful lists that are out there on the web, some people are obviously falling over themselves in the effort to think up a new original list before someone else gets there first.

You might be forgiven for thinking that such frantic panicky behaviour would be known as listeria but, of course, that is something quite different. You also might think that the scholars who study this kind of behaviour are called listorians, but again you would be wrong. Nevertheless lists are definitely here to stay and I for one would not want to find myself feeling listless. Day to day living for me requires lists, especially things-to-do lists, shopping lists and family birthday lists, not to mention the lists in address books and phone directories.

When children or grandchildren provide a birthday or Christmas list, it can be really helpful and avoids the embarrassment of giving them just what they didn’t want. It doesn’t have to destroy the element of surprise because they will always put far more on it than they can realistically expect. And there is no need to feel guilty if we end up not giving them everything they have asked for. After all, that is what life is like and the sooner they get used to it, the happier they will be.

Many parents will sift through the list and sort out what is just a whim of the moment or the latest craze that will be as dead as a dodo before the month is out. Then they will review their budget and do all that is possible to ensure their kids have what they need to keep up with their friends. Jesus knew all about the instinct and the love that pushes parents into giving their children what they want and what is good for them. ‘What father among you’, he said, ‘if his children ask for a Wii, would give them a Rubik’s Cube, or if they ask for a DVD of their favourite film, would give them the complete works of Shakespeare.’ Actually he used different examples – like if they ask for a fish, would you give them a snake? Or if they ask for an egg, would you give them a scorpion? But it means the same thing. We may not be the perfect parents but, even with all our imperfections, we know how to give good gifts to our children.

The point he was making was that if, as loving parents, we know what to give our children, how much more will God give to those who ask him. Jesus was using the illustration to encourage us in our prayers to God. He taught his disciples and he teaches us to be persistent in prayer, as persistent as having to go to a neighbour’s house in the middle of the night and wake them up because of some need that could not possibly wait until the morning. ‘Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For all those who ask will receive, and those who seek will find, and to those who knock, it will be opened.’

The trouble is that God does not always appear to give what we ask for in life. We hope, we dream, we work hard, we struggle and strive but it can feel that life does not deliver and we can feel disappointed and let down. And sometimes life bites and it hurts. Coming to terms with what life can and cannot offer you can be a huge and steep learning curve, steeper for some than for others, but climb it we must in order to attain any degree of contentment and maybe maturity as well.

So what was Jesus talking about? As usual, the punch line comes at the very end of this passage on prayer in St Luke Chapter 11. And it’s not at all what we expect to hear. ‘If you parents’, he says, ‘who are far from perfect, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!’

The whole point in praying is not to present God with your list in order to get all that you want in life. The point of praying is the deepening of a relationship with God, just as we talk and listen with one another, and get to know one another, and deepen our relationships with one another. Prayer is two way communication, talking and listening, and we need to keep at it. Persistence in prayer will bring its reward and as the relationship deepens, so the words become less important just as we do not always need to be talking with those who are closest to us. Just being there together can be enough.

And that is what the Holy Spirit is – God within us – and our task in praying is about keeping this relationship going. God is also ultimate truth and ultimate reality and so praying is also about building our lives on that reality and that truth. Or as another New Testament write put it: God is love and those who live in love live in God and God lives in them.

Special occasions in July


Diocesan Day of Celebration - Saturday 27th June
Archbishop Rowan Williams is coming to Exeter for a Celebration Eucharist at the Cathedral and the surrounding Green on Saturday 27th June at 11.30 am. In the afternoon he will join a number of celebrities conducting sessions of teaching and discussion, culminating at 5.15 pm with a Songs of Praise led by Judy Spiers. There will also be special children’s activities for ages 5-11 with Jim Bailey in the garden of the Bishop’s Palace from 2.30 – 4.45 pm. Full details from www.devon1100.org.

All Age Service with Cullompton Youth Band
– Sunday 5th July at 10.00 am at Christow
Many people enjoyed the visit in May of the Cullompton Puppeteers. This month we welcome their youth band to another All Age Service in Christow Church on Sunday 5th July at 10.00 am.

750th Anniversary Special - Sunday 26th July at 10.00 am at Christow
Many churches in Devon are celebrating a 750th anniversary this year and Christow is no exception. The year 1259 is the year that a Vicar of Christow was first recorded and may also be the time when the dedication to St James’ was established. So for St James’s Day this year, we shall be holding an Anniversary Special – a Service of Celebration for all the years that the church has been here at the centre of the village, a place of prayer and worship through all the turbulent times as well as the peaceful times of our history, a place where local families have marked and celebrated key moments in their lives. If you have a story connecting your family with the church, we should love to hear about it, and if you have any old pictures or photographs we should love to see them – please get in touch. But whether you have or haven’t, come and join us for a special celebration at 10.00 am on Sunday 26th July.

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
Just a few copies left now at the specially reduced price of £5 (rrp £7.99). Published to coincide with the 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter, this new book contains a guide, brief description and colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon. For your copy, please contact me as soon as possible.




PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Christow – Monday 20th July at 7.45 pm in Church
Dunchideock - Monday 27th July at 7.30 pm at The Beeches

Deanery Synod – Women Bishops
At Deanery Synod this month, Archdeacon Penny Driver is coming to talk about the move towards having Women Bishops in the Church of England. If you would like to hear her, please come along to the meeting of Deanery Synod on Thursday 23rd July at 7.30 pm at Holcombe Church in Dawlish.

From The Registers
Baptisms
May 24th Cameron Thomas (Dunsford)

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can. The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.
Graham Mayer

June

With the appointment of Carol Ann Duffy as the new Poet Laureate last month, the first woman poet ever to hold the position in its 341 year history, there seems to have been a fair amount of new interest aroused in either writing or reading poetry. At least, there was certainly a good deal of publicity and substantial media space was given over to encouraging new poetic talent.

According to reports I have read, her predecessor, Andrew Motion, found it quite difficult to write poems to order about special royal events and only managed to cobble together eight such poems during his ten year tenure of the post. I have to confess that I remain blissfully unaware of them, but then I also have to confess that I do not read that much poetry anyway.

For many people, a poem seems to require two basic essentials: rhyme and rhythm. Unlike prose, poetry must contain its themes and ideas in a highly-disciplined shape and that can help it become sharp and witty, or poignant and arresting, though this can also turn it into something baffling and obscure if we are struggling to find the links between the various images and ideas.

Catchphrases trade on similar principles but, to be successful, must be strong, striking and immediately understood. So I wonder if you have yet become aware of ‘Heaven in Devon’, the rhyming catchphrase adopted as the slogan for celebrating the 1100th anniversary of the Church of England in Devon.

‘Heaven in Devon’ for me conjures up images of bluebell woods, country cottages and delicious cream teas, the peace and rugged beauty of a lonely high spot on the moors or looking down on one of the many glorious coves and estuaries that adorn our coastline. Many of us might well say that we are privileged to live in such a beautiful county and, if heaven is really going to be like Devon, then that would be all right with us.

But that is not really what this catchphrase is all about. Devon may sometimes feel like heaven, especially for people who come here for holidays or short periods of refuge away from the highly-stressed routine and surroundings of their normal daily lives. However Devon, like anywhere else, is a place where real people still live real lives and have to toil to survive just like anywhere else on our planet.

When Jesus walked the hills of Galilee and ministered to people in the cities and villages of his native land, he told them that the kingdom of heaven was in their midst, but he was not referring to the beauty of their surroundings. He was alerting them to the presence of God among them. He was pointing to God at work among them through his teaching and healing, through his message of hope and meaning.

To people whose lives were made heavy with daily toil and all the oppression of having their land occupied by a foreign power, Jesus offered refreshment and a lightening of their burdens. To people who lived in hot, dry and dusty surroundings, he invited them to come to him as to a source of living water such that they need never feel thirsty again. To people who felt confused and deeply troubled by life’s challenges and questions, Jesus called them to come to him as the way, the truth and the life. To people who felt their lives were a drudge, he said: I have come so that you may have life in all its fullness.

So did those feet in ancient times ever walk upon England’s mountains green? Or was he ever in England’s pleasant pastures seen? Highly unlikely, but through the work, witness and ministry of Christ’s followers down through the ages, both inside and outside of the institutional churches, the kingdom of heaven has come near and has been proclaimed in Devon since the time of the Romans. Ordinary people living in Devon have experienced the blessing and strengthening of faith through all those centuries, an unbroken thread from ancient times through to people of faith in our own day.

This is what ‘Heaven in Devon’ is all about. This is what we are celebrating this year in the Church of England in Devon. Inside many of our ancient churches, you will find evidence of the support and relief that Christian people pioneered for the poor and sick before the days of the welfare state and a national health service. The practical outworking of faith also led to the founding of schools with the ideal of providing educational opportunities for everyone regardless of their wealth and status. It continues today in countless ways in local communities where people of faith are often deeply involved in leading, promoting and organising community initiatives for the benefit of others.

In today’s world, there are many people who prefer to keep away from what they see as organised religion and that in many ways is a healthy instinct. Christian churches are no different from other human organisations in facing the challenges that come when a group of people seek to work together and are by no means immune from all the human foibles and conflicts that can easily arise. But we are often too quick to judge people or institutions by their flaws and failings and would do better to affirm what is good and positive.

So here is an opportunity to affirm and celebrate what is good in our midst, and this month Bishop Bob will be here among us to help and encourage us in our local churches as well as meet with others in the wider community. At the end of the month, on Saturday 27th June, there will be a central Day of Celebration in Exeter that will surely be an occasion not to be missed.

Special events during June

Bridford Celebration – 1259-2009 – on Whitsunday – 31st May – 11.00 am
Not quite in June, but on Sunday 31st May there will be a Group Service at Bridford commemorating the 750th Anniversary of the Dedication of Bridford Church - followed by a Group Picnic in the Woodland Park. All are welcome – bring your own picnic.

Trinity Sunday – Sunday 7th June
This is a major festival in the Christian calendar – a celebration of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Details of services in the schedule on the back cover.

Bishop Bob on Tour - June 10th-14th
Bishop Bob will be on tour in our area as part of the 1100th Anniversary Programme. He will start here in the rural villages, including a visit to Doddiscombsleigh School, a Coffee Morning in Dunsford, the monthly Chat-in at Bridford, as well as walking round the Bridford Trust environmental project. One of the purposes of the tour is for the Bishop to meet and talk to local people in an informal way, and to learn about their concerns and issues.
There are also some events taking place during that week that are open to everyone across the area and details of these can be found elsewhere in this magazine as well as on leaflets available in our churches.

Church Celebrations on Sunday 14th June
On Sunday 14th June, there will be three major opportunities to gather together from across the whole area on this final day of the Bishop’s visit:
• Sung Eucharist with Confirmation and Baptism at 10.00 am
St Michael’s Church, Teignmouth – the church by the sea
• Songs of Praise at 12.00noon
On the Den and Teignmouth Sea Front – followed by Picnic Lunch – bring your own and a rug to sit on.
• Evening with Bishop Bob at 7.00 pm
An evening of Celebration, Worship and Teaching with Bishop Bob
at St Gregory’s Parish Church, Dawlish.
If you would appreciate help with transport to any of these events – please speak to your churchwardens. Please note that the only church service in the Teign Valley & Haldon Hill Group that day will be 8.30 am Holy Communion at Dunsford.

Diocesan Day of Celebration - Saturday 27th June
Archbishop Rowan Williams is coming to Exeter for a Celebration Eucharist at the Cathedral and the surrounding Green on Saturday 27th June at 11.30 am. In the afternoon he will join a number of celebrities conducting sessions of teaching and discussion, culminating at 5.15 pm with a Songs of Praise led by Judy Spiers. There will also be special children’s activities for ages 5-11 with Jim Bailey in the garden of the Bishop’s Palace from 2.30 – 4.45 pm. Full details from www.devon1100.org.

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
In this 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter, a new book with highlights and a colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon has been published. The advertised price is £7.99, but we have a limited number of copies available for £5. To order one, please use the forms available in our churches or contact me direct by phone or e-mail.

Teign Valley Youth Project
Quite a few people were unable to come to the 3rd Anniversary Celebration for our Youth Project on 10th May at Kingsteignton. It was a good occasion with a very helpful sermon from James Grier, one of the Diocesan Youth Team who is working to develop Youth Church in Exeter. Also Karly, Jess and Markus had produced an excellent presentation of the scope of their work across the area. Please continue to remember our workers in your prayers and especially as we will be saying goodbye to Karly and Markus in July and looking for two new workers to come and join us. Please pray for the right people to be called to join us.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Christow – Monday 1st June at 7.30 pm in Church
Dunsford – Wednesday 3rd June at 7.30 pm at Christow Rectory

The Revd Sam Davies (1918-2009)
Known affectionately to many people in our villages as simply Sam, the Revd S J Davies MBE sadly died back in March, the end of a long life dedicated to serving God and serving other people. He served God as a priest in the Church of England for well over 50 years, most notably as chaplain to the 1st Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment, known as the Glorious Glosters. It was during his time with them that he also fought for his country and the free world at huge personal cost in the Korean War of the early 1950s, ministering with immense courage to the men on the battlefield during their heroic stand against Chinese forces at the Imjin River, and afterwards in a prisoner of war camp at Pi-chonig-in, where he defiantly upheld the rights of his men to observe their faith and was severely punished as a result. Amazingly he survived and lived to tell the whole story in his memorable book that he called ‘In Spite of Dungeons’. Later he served in Germany, and then in rural ministry in Gloucestershire before moving to Doddiscombsleigh over twenty years ago. Supposedly in retirement, Sam continued to play a large role in the village church, conducting many baptisms, weddings and funerals as well as ministering in a less formal way that people grew to appreciate at a very deep level. He will be much missed by many people, not the least by Anne after well over fifty years together, and by their children, Judith and Nick, and their grandchildren. We pray that he may now rest in peace.

From The Registers
Baptisms
April 26th Eve Clark and Henry Ryder (Christow)
May 3rd Angus Carruthers (Dunsford)
Funerals
May 20th Phil Wilson (Christow)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone and e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) are available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

May

Way back in the mists of time, in a landscape that we would find hard to recognise, and among people that we would find hard to recognise, the Churches of Devon were part of a huge Diocese of Wessex that was ruled and administered from Sherborne in what is now Dorset. As churches began to be planted and built in nearly every town, village and estate, it was becoming very difficult for a Bishop to have oversight over such a huge area. So in the early 10th Century, the decision was taken to regroup, and to divide the area up into smaller dioceses.

Here in Devon, the new diocese was established at Crediton in 909, although by 1050 it became necessary to transfer the see to the better fortified city of Exeter. And so the diocese of Exeter was born, and eleven hundred years later in 2009 we are still here. Surely that must be something to celebrate!

One thing that is certainly worth celebrating is that ordinary Christian people have continued to live, work and worship in Devon’s parishes for over a millennium, have expressed their faith through architecture, ritual and custom, including of course the amazingly diverse and often very beautiful churches that are generously sprinkled all over our beautiful county.

Here in the Teign Valley, we are fortunate to have some very fine examples, churches that visitors travel many miles to come and see. Our most famous are Ashton, that featured in Simon Jenkins’s Best 1000 Churches, and Doddiscombsleigh with its medieval glass. But all of them are very special in different ways and, of course, they all date from some four hundred years later than the anniversary we are celebrating this year.

So what was there before? We often find yew trees in our churchyards, thought by some to be a remnant of the earliest days of the church. It is possible that they date from pre-Christian worship in which evergreen trees such as the Yew (and the “Holly and the ivy”) were revered as symbols of eternal life. When Christian monks arrived and people were converted, they probably still used the ancient sites of worship for the new faith. Another possible link to those days can be seen in the tradition of the Green Man, carvings of which can be found in our churches here, often with foliage emerging from his mouth.

We always need to remember that the word Church refers, not to a building, but to a people, and the first Saxon churches would have had no building at all. Worship probably took place around a wooden or stone cross. Clearly in our climate, shelter from the weather was a top priority and so a chancel would have been built to cover the cross and the altar, and a nave to protect the worshippers. As centuries went by, and additions and replacements were made to the original buildings, so adornments of different styles and shapes were incorporated. Medieval churches were also highly colourful places, offering not only a foretaste of heaven in the minds of worshippers, but also reinforcing the teaching, stories and beliefs of the Christian faith through colourful paintings and stained glass windows.
It is hard to imagine now, but for all but some 60 years of the 1100 year history of the Diocese, our country had no national health service or benefits for the poor, and in our churches you often find evidence of the church’s involvement in caring for the poor, in the legacies and the establishment of alms houses. Churches were, and often still are, highly significant at landmark moments in people’s lives, notably at birth, marriage and death. The font for baptism, the ceremony of initiation into the faith, is often symbolically just inside the door of the church, while medieval marriages were often conducted in the south porch as a way of making sure the whole community knew of the event. Similarly, the lych gates at the entrance to church yards were often a sheltered place where funeral services were held.

From the 1530’s churches kept registers of baptisms, marriages and deaths for the parish, and churches still hold these although the old registers are now held at the Devon Record Office. This period also marked a time of great change for the church. when the Church in England moved from being part of the Roman Catholic Church under the authority of the Pope in Rome, to become the Church of England under the authority of the King or Queen of England. It was also during Tudor times that the parish became the unit of local government. Poor laws meant that the poor were provided for in their own parish but could be whipped or have holes burned through their ears if they were found begging outside the parish. Many parishes kept the custom of “Beating the bounds” by which the whole population of the parish marched around its boundaries so that all knew their limits!

In order to finance the church’s increasingly important role, tithes (or one tenth of the year’s produce or its equivalent) were levied to help pay for the work of the church in education or caring for the sick. All that has ceased now, but long memories of such days probably helps to give rise to the popular misconception that the Church is wealthy. Nowadays the Church nationally is some 90% dependent on the giving of parishioners, and our local churches are totally financed by the people who belong or make use of them. It would be hard, even painful, to imagine our villages, towns and cities without their parish churches, and in rural areas the church remains very much part of the village community.

So how are we marking this 1100th Anniversary? To start with, a number of young people made the symbolic journey from Sherborne to Crediton during Holy Week, most of it on foot. Next our three bishops are going out to spend quality time in the parishes – not so much churches, but rather centres of community and very much with an emphasis on just being around to meet and talk to people. So Bishop Bob, our very friendly and accessible Bishop of Crediton, is coming to spend five days in our area, including visits to the Teign Valley, from June 10th-14th, and you will find full details of his schedule elsewhere in the magazine.

There is also a Day of Celebration in Exeter on Saturday 27th June and Archbishop Rowan Williams will be there for a Celebration Eucharist at the Cathedral and the surrounding Green in the morning at 11.30 am. A number of celebrities will be around in the afternoon conducting sessions of teaching and discussion, finishing at 5.00 pm with a Songs of Praise led by Judy Spiers. An occasion not to be missed!

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
In this 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter, a new book with highlights and a colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon has been published. The advertised price is £7.99, but we have a limited number of copies available for £5. To order one, please use the forms available in our churches or contact me direct by phone or e-mail.

Special events during May
Listen To Me! An All-Age Service with the Cullompton Puppeteers – at Christow Church on Sunday 3rd May at 10.00 am
We are privileged to have the Cullompton Puppeteers visiting us for a special all-age service in Christow Church on Sunday 3rd May at 10.00 am. Particularly good for your children, but also for all the young in mind and young at heart. Plenty of opportunity to get involved or just sit and watch! All are welcome!

Archdeacon’s Visitation – Monday 11th May – 7.00 pm
This year we go to the Cathedral in Exeter for an Archdeaconry Visitation to be conducted by the Bishop of Exeter. Your churchwardens and your Rural Dean will be sworn in, so please come and support them. All are very welcome.

Ascension Day – Thursday 21st May – 7.30 pm Ashton
There will be a Group Eucharist to celebrate Ascension Day at Ashton at 7.30 pm.

Bridford Celebration – 1259-2009 – on Whitsunday – 31st May – 11.00 am
There will be a Group Service at Bridford commemorating the 750th Anniversary of the Dedication of Bridford Church - followed by a Group Picnic in the Woodland Park. All are welcome.

Confirmation Service – Sunday 14th June 2009
If you wish to enquire about Confirmation this year, now is the time. This year the Confirmation Service for our area is to be held at Teignmouth as part of the Diocesan Celebrations during the week in June when Bishop Bob will be spending five days in our Deanery. Please get in touch by phone or e-mail.

Teign Valley Youth Project
This year we celebrate the 3rd Anniversary of our Youth Project and there will be a special Celebration Service on Sunday 10th May at 6.30 pm in Kingsteignton Parish Church. Please continue to remember our workers in your prayers and especially as we will be saying goodbye to Karly and Markus in July and looking for two new workers to come and join us. Please pray for the right people to be called to join us.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Ashton – Monday 18th May at 10.30 am at George Teign Barton
Bridford – Wednesday 20th May at 2.30 pm at The Spinney
Christow – Monday 1st June at 7.30 pm in Church
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 8th May at 7.30 pm at Oakley
Dunchideock – Monday 18th May at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Dunsford – Wednesday 3rd June at 7.30 pm at Christow Rectory

From The Registers
Funerals
March 26th The Revd S. J. ‘Sam’ Davies MBE (Doddiscombsleigh)
April 8th John Vanstone (Dunsford)
April 9th Gladys Tucker (Ashton)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone and e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) are available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

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April

Canon Robin Murch is one of the retired priests who helps us out quite regularly in the Teign Valley Churches and whose ministry is much appreciated by many in our congregations. Robin is quite a radical thinker and works tirelessly for causes that he considers to be of great importance. So once again, I am happy to replace my own thoughts for the month with a contribution from Robin and give some of his personal concerns a wider audience. In this article he is expressing his own particular personal outlook on our current world situation in the light of the Easter message.

The World Changes
If you think back a year you will realise a great deal has happened in the world over the last twelve months. We have seen the global economic crisis, with astronomic sums of money being lost, and the desperate measures by Governments to save the banking systems on which we all depend. The consequences of all of this will be severe for many people and we see it all frequently in the News presented in great detail, leaving many of us worried and confused by the sheer complexity of our world, its banking and trade.

On the other hand, it has been a good thing to see the new President of the United States of America, Barack Obama, robustly working with other world leaders to head off these massive problems at home and abroad, and coming to London for the G20 meeting on 2nd April.

To coincide with this, you may have read or heard in recent news about a large demonstration being held in London on Saturday 28th March: “Put People First.” This arises from a large alliance of development charities, Christian Aid, Fair Trade, Oxfam, Churches, Greenpeace, some 80 organisations in all making a vivid plea to the G.20 World Leaders here in UK to put people first. The concerns are:
• Put people first: Decent jobs and public services for all.
• Put people first: End global poverty and inequality.
• Put people first: Build a green economy.

The outcome of the G 20 meeting could be crucial for the future of the World and so our earnest prayers for the world and for God‘s grace to help and lead us are urgent. The truth to be seen is that world history is at a special turning point, this year.

I believe that it is a ‘Kairos moment’, meaning a moment when God acts, through world events, to change the world. Christians have always believed in a God who acts within history, both in the events narrated in the Bible such as the Exodus, the Exile and the fall of Jerusalem, and also in more recent history: the ending of slavery, the Civil Rights movement, the fall of the Berlin wall, the end of Apartheid and so on. Christians have always prayed for God’s Kingdom to come and release us from the pains of war, injustice, and the countless woes of our world, inflicted by people on people. Jesus taught us to do this with expectation.

Plenty of prayers from the afflicted world, and countless compassionate activists, have been given to God over the years. It makes some of us wonder whether the events of this year could be God’s response. Easter, which we celebrate every year globally as Christians, would lead us to think so. For in Easter we see the greatest God given intervention in world affairs of all.

God comes to us at Easter having shown us the full extent of his love on the Cross, then rising again for us. Those who believe in this great intervention, who are prepared to allow the Holy Spirit to intervene in their own lives, may well see the hand of God in today’s world events. Things will have to change. A new world is wanted and needed, but the question is in what direction?

The demonstrators want our leaders to put people first, the common good for all humanity above self interest. That is a hard call, yet it is not that distant from the call God has given people through out time. For we know God loves our world passionately, and it would typical of God to get involved and work with us to make a better world.

Our Easter Alleluia’s, are more than thanksgivings for gift of the Risen Jesus. They are a thrilling cry of hope too. They remind us that God who puts people first is with us in all the changes of the world, and his purposes for us are loving and good. This Easter as we face many challenging uncertainties, let us pray earnestly for the world and its leaders. Let us do so confident in the knowledge that God is also working his purposes out, for our blessing.

Robin Murch

Special occasions in April
Church Services for Holy Week and Easter
Palm Sunday – 5th April
Palm Crosses will be blessed and given out at all services:
Bridford at 10.00 am – Palm Sunday Service
Doddiscombsleigh at 10.00 am – Parish Communion
Dunsford at 10.00 am – Family Service
Maundy Thursday – 9th April
Commemoration of the Last Supper – Group Eucharist at Dunsford at 7.30 pm
Good Friday – 10th April
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion - Group Service at Dunsford at 10.00 am
Easter Day – 12th April
Early morning Holy Communion (BCP) – Bridford at 8.30 am
Mid-morning Easter Services with Communion:
Ashton / Christow / Doddiscombsleigh / Dunchideock / Dunsford – all at 10.00 am

Sunday Special – 29th March at 11.00 am - Christow
If you have not been to church since Christmas – or even if you have – here is an ideal opportunity to come back again. Sunday Special is for people in all our villages, a time to come together, an act of worship that aims to be accessible and enjoyable – and after the service, a time to gather over a glass and a plate of food. Clocks go forward by one hour – so we’re holding Sunday Special at 11.00 am. A welcome for all!

Confirmation Service – Sunday 14th June 2009
I am beginning to receive some more enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children. This year the Confirmation Service for our area is to be held at Teignmouth as part of the Diocesan Celebrations during the week in June when Bishop Bob will be spending five days in our Deanery. If you think this might be for you, or would like to know about confirmation, please have a word with me or get in touch by phone or e-mail.

Annual Church Meetings
All parishioners are invited to attend our Annual Church Meetings:
Ashton Thursday 23rd April at 3.00 pm in the Village Hall
Bridford Wednesday 1st April at 2.30 pm in Church
Christow Monday 30th March at 7.30 pm in Church
Dunchideock Monday 27th April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall
All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches.

From The Registers
Baptisms
February 22nd Ellen Newlove (Doddiscombsleigh)
March 8th Evelyn Jenkins (Doddiscombsleigh)
March 15th Calum Duffy (Ashton)
Chloe Gardner (Dunchideock)
Funerals
March 3rd Rosie Gillett (Dunchideock - at Exeter Crematorium)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone and e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) are available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

March

It’s very easy these days to be blinded by science. It’s easy enough for some people to be baffled by the manuals of instructions that come with a new television set or a digital camera. Just like our computer software, these highly sophisticated machines are capable of performing tasks that some of us might not use even if we were able to work out how to make them happen.

But when it comes to nanotechnology, quantum physics, embryology, molecular biology or any other of the fields where scientists are forever extending the range of human knowledge and understanding, many of us are left stranded. We need it to be explained in very simple words if we are to stand any chance of following where all latest discoveries are taking us. Even then it is not easy and I have to confess that at times I have often found the BBC2 scientific programme ‘Horizon’ quite an effective cure for insomnia.

Blindness to science seems to be quite a common affliction. For example, in this year when we are marking the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his famous book ‘On The Origin of Species’, it was discovered in a recent opinion poll that over half of our population do not really agree with him. Over half of the people do not accept that evolution is the best way of accounting for the wide diversity of life forms on this planet. Moreover, in spite of all that we now know about dinosaurs and fossils, a third of the population believe that the earth was created less than 10,000 years ago.

They are clearly not fans of David Attenborough! Yet he, perhaps more than anyone else, has opened our eyes both to the amazing diversity and to the interrelatedness of the huge range of forms of life that we have around us on this planet. His enthusiasm and excitement as he tells us about them is quite infectious. I expect Darwin was just as excited by his discoveries on the Galapagos Islands, but you do not feel it so directly from his famous but rarely read book.

Attenborough is so excited by what he sees that it can be positively exhausting to spend an hour listening to him. With his amazingly patient and creative camera teams, he reveals far more than Darwin probably ever dreamt of And whether we are talking plants, insects, birds, fish or animals, we see not only the immense beauty of what is around us, and the mind-boggling diversity of it all. We are also very aware of the violence, the cruelty, the suffering and the waste that is part of it as well.

George Bernard Shaw remarked that Darwin had the good luck to please everyone who had an axe to grind. And if it was the church or the power of organised religion that anyone wished to grind down, then it was so easy to undermine them by setting up a Darwin v. Genesis, or science v. religion, contest. We all know the argument. If the Bible tells us that all life forms were created by the word of God in six days some ten thousand years ago, then how can we believe the Bible and at the same time accept the discoveries that Darwin and other scientists have been making?

It is not easy for us today to put ourselves in the shoes, or adopt the mindset of the people of Victorian Britain, the first readers of Darwin’s book.. Unlike many people today, when it came to matters of belief, they generally accepted the authority of the Church and a literal reading of the Bible without question. In challenging these assumptions, Darwin knew the dangerous ground he was treading. So he spent over twenty years after his return from the Galapagos carefully developing his theories of natural selection, the survival of the fittest, and the development of species. Even then he knew he was about to set a cat among the pigeons. It was only when he found an ally to stand by him that he finally and bravely published his book.

We know that there are still people around with axes to grind about God and the church. Often they fall back on the familiar science v. religion debate. Likewise there are people around who insist on reading the Bible literally, who ignore all the insights that have helped us over the last century to understand the texts in a very different way. Then there are those who regard evolution as an established fact rather than a theory. It is easy to forget that scientists are only just beginning to understand the process, only just beginning to tease out the genetic mechanisms that allowed fish to start walking on land and dinosaurs to fly in the air.

In fact we are still in a new exciting age of discovery with regard to the process of biological evolution. The various disciplines of palaeontology, anatomy, molecular biology, embryology and genetics are combining to suggest answers as to how the mutations occurred, to describe the factors that led to the evolution of new species and to identify the missing links between one major species and another. But they reckon that it’ll be another one hundred and fifty years before we know the full story. By then we could all well have lost interest!

In the meantime, how does God fare in all this? Has the theory of evolution pushed the idea of a creator God completely out of court? For some people, yes it has. Far more critical though is the puzzle of trying to reconcile the God of power and love with all the violence, cruelty, suffering and waste that seem to be built into the world as we know it, not only in the natural world but also in human experience. The God that we find revealed in the very varied and inconsistent witness of the Biblical texts, the God revealed in the person of Jesus, wasted and violated through his death on the cross, and the God who is experienced at first hand in so many lives transformed and redeemed – this God appears to have put us in a world that even the cleverest people struggle to understand. But I’m quite sure that the option of God has not yet been totally ruled out.

Special events during March
Mothering Sunday – 22nd March at 10.00 am – Bridford and Dunsford
This year Mothering Sunday falls on 22nd March and there will be special Mothering Sunday Services for all our villages at Bridford and Dunsford Churches at 10.00 am. All are welcome.

Sunday Special – 29th March at 11.00 am - Christow
If you have not been to church since Christmas – or even if you have – here is an ideal opportunity to come back again. Sunday Special is for people in all our villages, a time to come together, an act of worship that aims to be accessible and enjoyable – and after the service, a time to gather over a glass and a plate of food. Clocks go forward by one hour – so we’re holding Sunday Special at 11.00 am. A welcome for all!

This year’s Lent Course
Last year a good number of people took part in the Lent Course ‘Listening to God’s World’ that was used in churches all over Devon. This year we have the opportunity to use the follow-up course: ‘Responding to God’s world’, with DVD and discussion. This Lent course begins the first week in March, on Wednesday 4th March at 10.30 am, and we will meet at The Spinney in Bridford by kind invitation of Francis and Daphne Leversedge.

Lent Lunches
In Dunsford Lent Lunches are being held on Mondays at 12.30 pm, beginning on 2nd March, at 9 Brownings Mead, by kind invitation of Cecily Tripp.

Looking ahead
Palm Sunday – 5th April – 10.00 am – Bridford, Doddiscombsleigh and Dunsford
The story of the Passion will be read in dramatic form and Palm Crosses will be blessed and given out at these services on Palm Sunday:
Bridford at 10.00 am – Palm Sunday Service
Doddiscombsleigh at 10.00 am – Parish Communion
A Family Service for Palm Sunday will be held at Dunsford at 10.00 am.
Please note
There will be no 8.30 am Holy Communion on Palm Sunday at Bridford. Instead this service is being held both on the previous Sunday, 29th March, and also the following Sunday, Easter Day, 12th April, at Bridford.

Confirmation Service – Sunday 14th June 2009
I am beginning to receive some more enquiries about Confirmation from both adults and children. Confirmation, as the name suggests, is about confirming the faith into which we were baptised (christened) when we were too young to be aware of what was going on. For those who were not baptised as infants, it is also possible to be baptised as an adult or child, and to be confirmed on the same occasion. This year the Confirmation Service for our area is to be held at Teignmouth as part of the Diocesan Celebrations during the week in June when Bishop Bob will be spending five days in our Deanery. If you think this might be for you, or would like to know about confirmation, please have a word with me or get in touch by phone or e-mail.

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
2009 is the 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter and to mark this a new book with highlights and a colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon has been published. The advertised price is £7.99, but we have a limited number of copies available for £5. To order one, please use the forms available in our churches where sample copies will be available to view after services.

Annual Church Meetings
All parishioners are invited to attend our Annual Church Meetings:
Ashton Thursday 23rd April at 3.00 pm in the Village Hall
Bridford Wednesday 1st April at 2.30 pm in Church
Christow Monday 30th March at 7.30 pm in Church
Doddiscombsleigh Monday 23rd March at 7.30 pm in Church
Dunchideock Monday 27th April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall
Dunsford Thursday 19th March at 7.30 pm in Church
All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches.

From The Registers
Baptisms
February 1st Miakelis Hope Tribble (Christow)
Funerals
January 29th John Stanbury (Ashton)
February 5th Susan Wills (Christow)
February 14th Norman Willoughby (Dunsford - at Exeter Crematorium)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

February

It’s just over twenty years ago that the highly original American singer-songwriter, Roy Orbison, died suddenly of a heart attack at the age of 52. So as often happens, a there have been a number of television shows recently broadcast to commemorate the anniversary. Among them is the famous recording of a rather special nightclub show made about a year before he died which was filmed unusually in black and white and called simply ‘A Black and White Night’. It was a special because he was not simply performing singing his songs. He was accompanied by a line-up of some of the most accomplished rock musicians and singers of the 1980’s who just wanted to play his music even though some of it dated from the start of his singing career in the 1950s.

All these musicians, with their busy lives and schedules, dropped everything to be there for the occasion. They not only recognised the quality and originality of the songs, not only acknowledged his influence on their own music-making, but also were deeply impressed by the humility, courtesy and modesty of someone who had such a great and original talent. Former U2 lead singer, Bono, spoke of him in this way. Rock music has the image of being juvenile rebel music, he said, but often that is no more than a licence for rudeness and egocentric behaviour. To me real rebels are the ones who have manners. This man who wrote such extraordinary songs, who was a real innovator in popular music and a truly great singer, was just so humble.

The real rebels are the ones who have manners. That is an interesting statement. It recognises that the real rebels are those who go against the grain, who step aside from the way that others follow, in this case, who refuse to buy into the trend of self-assertive egocentric behaviour that appears to be fairly dominant in our world today. They reject what you might call the spirit or values of the age. Such rebels are often overlooked because they are not there in your face, not always promoting themselves or displaying their ambition in a highly competitive world. They can be people with great gifts and qualities but because they are not full of themselves, they may not get the attention they deserve.

Sometimes the people who spend their lives quietly doing good for other people do get some kind of recognition, although very often such recognition is the last thing that they want. In our small village communities, many of us can probably think of quite a few unsung heroes and heroines, who would not thank us for mentioning their names and causing embarrassment. Humility and modesty combined with a real willingness to spend time and energy for the wider good of others and the community are precious qualities.

Some would say that they are becoming more difficult to find as well. Busy lives, long working hours, lots of new rules and regulations, training requirements, all these can be a real disincentive against offering time and energy to help run or organise something in the village. Fortunately we still have rebels among us who defy the trends and who are willing to get involved and do things for the benefit of others.

This year in church we shall be hearing quite a lot of the story of Jesus as presented to us in the gospel according to Mark. All the gospels portray Jesus as a real rebel, as someone who did not buy into the spirit of the age, the values of the world. But Mark puts special emphasis on his desire for secrecy, the avoidance of publicity. In Mark’s version, Jesus does not want everyone to know who he is or what he is doing.

Whenever he cures someone of leprosy, restores sight or hearing or releases them from some demon that has taken possession of their lives, Jesus orders them to tell no one about it. He did not want to attract a mass following and there were probably good reasons for that given the political situation of the time. He needed three years to complete his work and an early arrest by the authorities, before he was ready for it, would not have helped him at all.

The other important reason is that he did not want to be known as a miracle worker or healer. There were plenty of them around. The point of the secrecy, of avoiding popular acclaim, was to allow him to reveal who he truly was and to point peoples’ minds away from the miracles and wonders to the God who had sent him and given him such powers. He adopted the stance of humility rather than celebrity, of self-effacement rather than self-assertion, not seeking the glory for himself but for God alone. He rejected the spirit of the world because he carried within him the spirit of God.

In this way Jesus certainly was a rebel, challenging all our preconceptions and the dominant trends of life in our world. The secrecy ploy in the end did not last and he was hunted down and destroyed, betrayed through the false preconceptions of one of his chosen followers. But the Spirit lived on and still lives on, giving power to those people who commit to walking in his way, who become his followers and disciples.

Special events during February
Taizé Style Worship – Christow Church - Sunday 1st February at 6.00 pm
This month we are providing another opportunity to experience worship using music and songs developed by the Taizé Community in France. The songs are short and simple, and very easily learned with very accessible and often lovely melodies. The setting is informal, and between the songs there will be readings, prayers and short periods of silence for reflection. Christow Church - Sunday 1st February at 6.00 pm. Come along from 5.30 onwards, and there will be a chance to learn some of the songs.

Ash Wednesday – 25th February at 10.00 am/7.30 pm
To get Lent off to a start, there will be Ash Wednesday services at Christow at 10.00 in the morning and at Dunchideock at 7.30 in the evening.

Looking ahead to Lent
Last year a good number of people took part in the Lent Course ‘Listening to God’s World’ that was used in churches all over Devon. This year we have the opportunity to use the follow-up course: ‘Responding to God’s world’. As Easter is later this year, on April 12th, Lent courses will not begin until the first week in March. So there will be full details of what’s on offer next month.

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
As we move into 2009, a new book with highlights and a colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon, is being published to celebrate the 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter that we shall be celebrating this year. The published price is £7.99, but we have a limited number of copies available for £5. To order one, please use the forms available in our churches where sample copies will be available to view after services.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Dunsford – Wednesday 4th February at 7.45 pm at Christow Rectory
Dunchideock – Monday 9th February at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Bridford - Wednesday 11th February at 2.30 pm at Connetts Cottage

From The Registers
Funerals
January 22nd David Green (Interment of Ashes at Ashton)
Olive Taverner (Christow)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer





BOLD is a new-to-us approach to worship that is being introduced by the Teign Valley Youth Workers. Led by young people, it is aimed at Christians of all ages, to encourage us to be enthusiastic about our relationship with God and to see younger people taking a great part in leading and enabling worship.

BOLD happens alternate months through the area of the Teign Valley Youth Project, and this month it is coming to the valley villages.

BOLD happens on Sunday 15th February at 6.00 in Christow Church.
All are welcome.

December

Call me naïve if you like but, not having been on a Holy Land Tour, I have never seen modern day Bethlehem.  Instead for many years I carried around in my mind’s eye the image of Bethlehem that we receive from carols and nativity plays that is closer to the world of wonder and Walt Disney than to anything resembling real life.  Only at a relatively late stage did I begin to register the harsher realities, not to mention the physical discomforts and the psychological trauma experienced by the people whose story we read about in the gospels.

Those of you who have been there know that Bethlehem is a real place inhabited by real people struggling to make the best of their lives just as many others do in today’s world.  Not so long ago, pictures were regularly shown on our screens of people in a battle-torn city, victims of bombs and bullets, death and destruction.  Even in more settled times, it looks no different from thousands of ordinary towns and suburbs across the world.  It bears no resemblance to that little town of the carol – how still we see thee lie! - and nothing like the image many of us retain in the unquestioning recesses of our memories.

Those who visit the Holy Land today find that many of the people living ordinary lives in Israel, whatever their race or religion, simply want peace and a chance to prosper, as many of us would in a similar situation.  The militant minority that have old scores to settle or who just want to continue struggling are possibly a bit like the first century nationalist Zealots seeking to undermine the rule of the Roman invaders, all part of the scene and the context in which God invited Mary and Joseph to bear and nurture his Son.

If bombs and bullets had been available, the Zealots would have used them in their struggle against the Roman occupying army, and it was the Romans who decided to hold some kind of national census at that time, possibly for taxation purposes.  As it turned out, this fitted well with God’s purposes.  Joseph, a carpenter in Nazareth in the northern province of Galilee, still had ancestry, and possibly land and family, 80 miles away in Bethlehem.  He had no choice but to make the arduous journey with Mary but in so doing fulfilled, not just the edict of the Roman emperor, but what the prophets had foretold and what the Jews all believed, that the Messiah would be born in Bethlehem, the city of David.

It’s not easy for us to escape the soft cosy image of the birth in Bethlehem that gets re-created each year through our carols and nativity settings.  But if we allow our imagination to re-create instead something of what it was like in reality, we will find something that will give us far more food for thought.  We will certainly find something more wonderful and mysterious and more deeply satisfying than the consumer winter festival that Christmas has become for many people.

As a step in that direction, you might like to cast your eyes over this unusual version of a well-known carol - though I don’t recommend you try and sing it – rather read it as a poem:

          Once in Judah’s least known city

                             Stood a boarding house with back door shed,

where an almost single-parent mother

tried to find her new-born son a bed.

Mary’s mum and dad went wild

when they heard their daughter had a child.

He brought into earth a sense of heaven:

Lord of none and yet Lord of all;

And his shelter was always unstable

For his mission was beyond recall.

With the poor, with those least holy,

Christ the King was pleased to live so lowly.

Not in that uncharted stable

with the village gossips standing by

but in heaven we shall see him –

which may not be up above the sky –

if, in love for friend and stranger,

we embrace the contents of the manger.

(Reproduced with permission copyright © 1997 WGRG, Iona Community, Glasgow G51 3UU, Scotland)

Getting to Church this Christmas

All our village churches offer a full range of services this Christmas:

·        Christingle Services

Dunsford – December 6^th at 10.00 am

Christow – December 6^th at 5.00 pm

Bridford – December 6^th at 5.00 pm

Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 3^rd December at 6.30 pm

Dunchideock – December 13^th at 5.00 pm

Please note that this year the Ashton service will be held jointly at Christow.

·        Carol Services

Ashton – Sunday 20^th December at 4.00 pm

Dunchideock - Sunday 20^th December at 5.00 pm

Christow– Sunday 20^th December at 6.00 pm

Dunsford – Sunday 20^th December at 6.30 pm

Doddiscombsleigh – Monday 21^st December at 7.00 pm

– once again taking the form of a Village Nativity with Carols

Bridford – Christmas Eve, 24^th December at 6.00 pm

·        Crib Service

Dunsford – Christmas Eve, 24^th December at 4.00 pm

·        Midnight Mass

Ashton/Doddiscombsleigh/Dunchideock/Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm

·        Christmas Morning Services

Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am

Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

Sunday after Christmas

There will be a Group Service at Dunsford on Sunday 27^th December at 10.00 am.

From The Registers

Weddings

November 7^th        Matthew Fassnidge and Edith Macgill (Ashton)

Funerals

November 16^th      Amy Saunders (Dunsford)

We extend out sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours

The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-12.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.  The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.

Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

                                                                                                         Graham Mayer

January

There are some people who believe that if you keep your Christmas cards and decorations up after the 5th January (the twelfth day), then you will be in for bad luck. A lot of nonsense of course, but a good reminder nonetheless that on January 6th Christmas is over and the season of Epiphany begins.

The word ‘Epiphany’ simply means a revelation of God, and so we focus on the gospel stories that identify Jesus as God’s Son. The first is the coming of the Wise Men that we celebrate on January 6th, and in some countries this is more important than Christmas day. They travelled from the East with the sole purpose of offering worship to a new born king, and probably arrived when Jesus was a toddler rather than a baby.

As we move further into Epiphany, we revisit other stories where the divinity of Christ is displayed or manifested, such as his baptism, the story of the water turning into wine and other miracles. But every so often, the pattern is interrupted whenever January 25th falls on a Sunday, as it does this year.

The reason is that, on January 25th, we celebrate the conversion of Saul of Tarsus, better known to us as St Paul. Three times in the New Testament you will find the famous first-hand account of how Paul experienced a blinding light and heard the voice of Jesus speaking to him while he was on his way to Damascus. Paul was a leading Pharisee, dedicated to putting an end to the new Jesus movement that had sprung up within the Jewish religion. He had no tolerance for these people who, as far as he was concerned, were perverting the truths of his religion. He had already seen the first Christian martyr, Stephen, stoned to death and was now in hot pursuit of others in Damascus.

It was on the Damascus road that he had a direct revelation of Jesus Christ and from that moment on, everything changed - even his name. He was now utterly convinced by his experience that Jesus really was the Son of God, and that he had been chosen by God not only to convince his own people in the synagogues, but also to take the good news of Christ to the gentiles and pagans of the Roman and Greek-speaking world. He travelled the length and breadth of the Mediterranean world proclaiming Jesus. He was many times arrested, flogged and barely escaping with his life, until finally he was placed under house arrest in Rome and eventually beheaded.

The letters that he wrote to the various churches that he set up have become classic texts for Christian belief, and extracts from them are read week by week in churches even today. His understanding of Jesus as the second Adam, the new creation, with the power to set all people free from slavery to self-interest and selfish desire, lies at the heart of the Christian faith. He had the gift of creating easily memorised slogans that neatly capture the essence of what the 'Christ-event' achieved for humankind, while his 'hymn to love' (1 Corinthians 13) is an enduringly popular piece and still read frequently at weddings.

Nowadays we are highly and probably rightly suspicious of obsessive religious fanatics, and St Paul seems to have had that kind of mentality. But his experience on the road to Damascus left him with no choice. And he presents us with claims that, once understood, we cannot really ignore. We either have to dismiss Jesus, and Paul, as deluded madmen. Or else we are faced with what to do with this seemingly absurd notion that Jesus really was the one and only, never to be repeated, Son of God.

Getting to Church this Christmas - as some of you receive this magazine before Christmas, here are some reminders:

• Carol Services
Dunchideock - Sunday 21st December at 11.00 am
Christow– Sunday 21st December at 6.00 pm
Dunsford – Sunday 21st December at 6.30 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – Monday 22nd December at 7.30 pm
– once again taking the form of a Village Nativity with Carols
Bridford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 6.00 pm

• Crib Service
Dunsford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 4.00 pm

• Midnight Mass
Ashton/Doddiscombsleigh/Dunchideock/Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm

• Christmas Morning Services
Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am
Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

Looking back to Christmas
You may read this before Christmas is over, but thank you to those who have worked hard to prepare and decorate our churches for the Christmas services – with trees, flowers, candles, cribs and everything else that combines to provide a seasonal atmosphere for our worship. Thank you also to who have played, read or provided any other special input into our Christingle and Carol Services. At a busy time of year, all this extra work and time that is given is much appreciated. Thank you also to our Bell Ringers – not just at Christmas – but for their time and commitment throughout the year that are appreciated by so many.

Sunday after Christmas – Sunday 28th December
There will be a Group Eucharist at Dunsford at 10.00 am

The Year Ahead
Looking forward to Lent
Last year a good number of people took part in the Lent Course ‘Listening to God’s World’ that was used in churches all over Devon. This year we shall have the opportunity to follow a similar format with a course entitled: Responding to God’s world’. As Easter is later this year, on April 12th, Lent courses will not begin until March. So full details next month.

Five Days with Bishop Bob – June 2009
Bishop Bob, our current Bishop of Crediton, has warmed the hearts and nourished the faith of many people since he arrived in the diocese three years ago. In June this year he is planning to spend five days among us in Kenn Deanery as part of the celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter. He will be available to meet, speak, discuss and take questions from any groups or organisations, schools, pubs or clubs, who might like to put on an event or meeting with Bishop Bob as guest speaker. IF you would like to include him in your programme from 10th-14th June, let me know by January 15th when we shall be starting to finalise his programme.

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
As we move into 2009, a new book with highlights and a colour photograph of every single Church of England church in Devon, is being published to celebrate the 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter that we shall be celebrating this year. The published price is £7.99, but we have a limited number of copies available for £5. To order one, please use the forms available in our churches where sample copies will be available to view after services.

Deanery Synod: Churchwardens and Treasurers
This month’s Deanery Synod features the Chairman of the Diocesan Board of Finance, Michael Tagent, speaking about the new assessment system for the Common Fund. All churchwardens and parish treasurers are invited to come as well as Synod member – Wednesday 7th January at 7.30 pm at Exminster Parish Church.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 22nd January at 7.30 pm at Oakley
Christow – Monday 26th January at 7.45 pm at Limuru.
Ashton – Friday 30th January at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Dunsford – Wednesday 4th February at 7.45 pm at Christow Rectory
Dunchideock – Monday 9th February at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Bridford - Wednesday 11th February at 2.30 pm at Connetts Cottage

From The Registers
Baptisms
December 14th Isobel Horton (Doddiscombsleigh)
Weddings
December 13th Matthew Wilkinson and Sarah Lindsay-Bush (Ashton)
Funerals
December 11th Daphne Toosey (Doddiscombsleigh)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very happy and fruitful New Year. Graham Mayer

December

Has God ever spoken to you? Not necessarily by sending a winged messenger or by writing in a mysterious code on the wall of your dining room. Neither does it have to take the form of a vision or a dream. More often than not, God speaks to people in the still small voice. It could be the voice of conscience, or maybe a quiet conviction begins to take shape in the recesses of your mind. It might be a sense that you need to suggest something, call somebody, move in a particular direction. Or it may be experienced in a more dramatic way, perhaps during a particularly challenging or painful period of your life, perhaps when a new door suddenly opens, when someone helpful turns up out of the blue or when you find an unexpected source of strength and well-being.

Such experiences are quite common and many people would probably not consider that they have anything to do with God at all. If THERE IS PROBABLY NO GOD, as the British Humanist Association is advertising in capital letters on London buses, any such experiences might simply be explained in another way, as the mysterious workings of the human brain, the activity of certain chemicals in our bodies, or simple coincidence and good fortune.

However the notion that God is active and involved in our lives does have a lot going for it. And at Christmas we celebrate it in a big way. At Christmas we tell stories of how God in former times spoke to people in some very remarkable ways. At our carol services, we read the prophecy of Isaiah, one of a number of people who were inspired by God to speak about events of world-changing significance that would not happen for another six hundred years or so. Then there’s the well-known story of the angel sent by God to a young girl in Nazareth, with the message that she would conceive a boy-child in her womb, that his name would be Jesus, meaning the one who saves, that he will called the Son of the Most High, that he will reign over a kingdom that will never end.

The Christmas story reminds us not only of God’s involvement with our lives, but also how he seems to choose people to play particular roles in his purposes. It is as if God already knew that Mary would be predisposed to accept her calling, and that Joseph would have the courage to stick by her even though, according to the social norms of the day, he should have broken off their betrothal and publicly shamed her as soon as he knew that she was with child before they had come together.

In fact God finds Joseph very responsive to dreams - first when it is revealed that he should still take Mary as his wife, scandalous as it might have appeared; secondly when they need to run away to Egypt and seek asylum from King Herod’s soldiers; and finally when he is told that it is safe to return home. Similarly, the three wise men from the East are guided – first by the star that they interpreted as the sign of a new king being born, and by their dream not to return to Herod after they find him.

The Christmas story is a real tale of the unexpected. But then so are many of the Bible stories of how God gets involved and brings changes into people’s lives. In fact one of the more consistent themes of the Bible is how God is always challenging people to look outside the frame. Conceived outside of marriage, born outdoors and laid in an animal trough, and then fleeing with his parents like an asylum-seeker from the legal forces of law and order, Jesus’s earliest years set a pattern that continued in his later life. Jesus constantly challenged the church or religious establishment of his day, he broke the rules, he failed to keep the Sabbath, he caused scandal by the company he kept and the people he embraced, and in the end he died like a common criminal by crucifixion. He not only pushed the boundaries but broke through them in order to share the love of God with the whole of humanity.

Has God ever spoken to you? At Christmas we celebrate the story that no one could have dreamt up. This is the story of God bringing to fulfilment through Jesus his purposes of making his love accessible to the whole of humankind. This is a story that can only have come from God.

Getting to Church this Christmas
All our village churches offer a full range of services this Christmas:

• Christingle Services
Dunsford – December 7th at 10.00 am
Christow – December 7th at 5.00 pm
Bridford – December 7th at 6.30 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 11th December at 6.30 pm
Dunchideock – December 14th at 5.00 pm
Please note that this year the Ashton service will be held jointly at Christow.

• Carol Services
Ashton – Sunday 14th December at 4.00 pm
Dunchideock - Sunday 21st December at 11.00 am
Christow– Sunday 21st December at 6.00 pm
Dunsford – Sunday 21st December at 6.30 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – Monday 22nd December at 7.30 pm
– once again taking the form of a Village Nativity with Carols
Bridford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 6.00 pm

• Crib Service
Dunsford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 4.00 pm

• Midnight Mass
Ashton/Doddiscombsleigh/Dunchideock/Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm

• Christmas Morning Services
Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am
Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

Sunday after Christmas
There will be a Group Service at Dunsford on Sunday 28th December at 10.00 am.

Pilgrim’s Guide to Devon Churches
This new book, gathering information and colour photographs of every Church of England church in Devon, is being published to celebrate the 1100th Anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter that we shall be celebrating in 2009. With some well-informed introductory articles, plus maps and comprehensive index, this unique guide will reveal some of the hidden treasures of our county. The published price is £7.99, but we have a limited number of copies available for £5. To order one, please use the forms available in our churches where sample copies will be available to view after services.

From The Registers
Funerals
October 29th David Green (Ashton)
November 14th Robert ‘Bob’ Baber (Christow)
We extend out sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone and e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) are available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.

Graham Mayer

November

As the wise old man once said: There are always three sides to any argument. There’s my side. There’s your side. And there’s the Truth.

Since time immemorial people have been baffled by the concept of truth. Great thinkers and philosophers search for it. Most people seem to have an instinctive concern and yearning for it. At the same time we may try to avoid it. This is because the truth can be painful. The truth can reveal what we do not want to know, what we do not want to hear, and what we do not want some other people to know or to hear.

When we witness in a court of law we are asked to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. It’s a tall order. At best we can only witness to what we believe we saw or heard or understood. The same event or incident from another perspective can look quite different. And words we might use like ‘fast’ or ‘suspicious’ or ‘violent’ can be very subjective.

When we tell our own stories, or the stories of our family, community or nation, the truth can become even more elusive. We have amazingly powerful mechanisms for turning events and incidents in the past to our own advantage, perhaps in order to impress, justify or simply to avoid unpleasant feelings of shame or guilt. We may not actually tell lies, but we can be economical with the truth, or exaggerate for effect. We get things to look the way we would prefer to see them.

Sadly some people are so skilful at spinning their web of lies that they end up losing touch with the truth altogether. If your life is interesting enough to be worthy of later historical of biographical investigation, we live in an age where few stones are left unturned. If you manage to hide it while you are alive, someone in future generations is sure to be determined enough to dig it out.

The words and teachings of Jesus have quite a lot to say about truth – either directly or by implication. He speaks to us of God as a Father who knows all the secrets of our hearts, but that does not stop him loving us. ‘Do not be afraid’, he said, ‘for there is nothing covered up that will not be uncovered, and nothing secret that will not become known.’ Such words also support that widespread instinctive feeling in many people that there is such a thing as Truth, with a capital T. He even said that his reason for being born, his reason for coming into the world was to bear witness to the Truth.

The truth, however painful, is always easier to bear than dishonesty. We can carry on loving and trusting and forgiving someone when we know that they are speaking the truth. And that is a far more creative context in which to come clean and be truthful. That is probably why many people find the Christian process of confession and absolution to be a creative, satisfying and healing experience. The joy of being able to be honest and at the same time to be fully loved and accepted is one that is not easily surpassed.
Special occasions in November

Taizé Style Worship – Bridford Church - Sunday 2nd November at 6.00 pm
This month we are providing another opportunity to experience worship using music and songs developed by the Taizé Community in France. The songs are short and simple, and very easily learned with very accessible and often lovely melodies. The setting is informal, and between the songs there will be readings, prayers and short periods of silence for reflection. Bridford Church - Sunday 2nd November at 6.00 pm. Come along from 5.30 onwards, and there will be a chance to learn some of the songs.

Remembrance Sunday Services – Sunday 9th November
This year Remembrance Sunday falls on 9th November, and there will be appropriate services with an Act of Remembrance in each of our village churches:
Ashton – 9.30 Remembrance Sunday Service
Bridford – 10.30 Remembrance Sunday Service
Doddiscombsleigh – 10.50 Service of Remembrance
Dunchideock – 10.50 Parish Communion with Act of Remembrance
Dunsford – 10.50 Service of Remembrance
Christow – 10.55 Parish Communion with Act of Remembrance

Shoebox Sundays
October 26th at Christow and Dunsford or November 2nd at Doddiscombsleigh
Leaflets are now available for Operation Christmas Child and the dates for bringing in your shoeboxes are Sundays 26th October or 2nd November. On those days, at the 10.00 am services, the shoeboxes that have been collected will be blessed and sent on their way. Shoeboxes can also be collected in other ways – please contact Annabelle Hofmann (252961) for further information.


Christingle Services
Christmas cards and goodies are already in the shops for a few weeks. In church we get our first taste with the arrival of Advent at the end of this month and our Christingle Services:
Dunsford - Sunday 7th December at 10.00 am
Bridford - Sunday 7th December at 5.00 pm
Christow – Sunday 7th December at 5.00 pm
Dunchideock - Sunday 14th December at 5.00 pm
Please note that this year the Ashton service will be held jointly at Christow.

Harvest Thanksgiving Services
Thank you to all those who decorated the churches and donated flowers, greenery and produce for our Harvest Thanksgiving Services. Thank you too to all those involved in preparing and serving the lunches and suppers, and in selling the produce. As well as celebrating the good things in life, we were also remembering the needs of others. Generous amounts were raised to send to the appropriate organisations and goods that were not auctioned for this purpose were given to Age Concern in Exeter.
Confirmation
Enquiries about Confirmation in 2009 can be made at any time by contacting me by phone, e-mail or in person (see below).

PCC Meetings
A reminder for PCC members of the next meetings:
Dunchideock Monday 24th November at 7.30 pm at The Beeches

From The Registers
Baptisms
October 12th Jack Edworthy (Christow)

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone and e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) are available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer




























Mike – this could be a separate article

Teign Valley Youth Project
Our three youth workers, Karly, Markus and Jess, have been working together now for nearly two months in the third year of our youth project which covers the whole catchment area of Teign School, from Kingsteignton through to Chudleigh and up here in the valley villages as far as Dunsford. While there are often clubs for primary aged children, there tends to be much less provision for the 11-18 age group. This is one reason why the parish churches in all these areas have come together to provide three workers who go into Teign School two days a week where they offer lesson support, run lunchtime activities and are generally much appreciated by the staff. This gives them a chance to meet the students, and then to pick up on those meetings when they go out in the community.

Karly, Markus and Jess are all trainee youth workers pursuing a recognised youth-work training course with SWYM. (South West Youth Ministries). They have been placed on our project as part of their course, they are fully supervised by their line manager and mentors, and have satisfied all the usual statutory child protection requirements. They are young Christian people but they are not out to impose their faith or beliefs on anyone. Rather they are here to offer a service to young people in our communities, to make friends, have fun with them and be available to chat about any issues that might be of concern to them as young people growing up in today's world.

For some two years now, the workers have been down at the car park in Christow on a Monday afternoon where they meet young people returning from school on the bus, sometimes offering something to eat and drink by way of creating a short time to talk to them. This has now been extended to Bridford on Wednesday afternoons, so if they stop and talk to the workers, parents may find their children getting home a bit later than usual. If you have any concern about this, please get in touch.

Having three workers to cover such a wide area means that there is a limit to the activities that can be provided. At present for the valley villages, they run a group at the Bowden Room on Wednesday evenings, 7.00 – 8.30 pm. It goes by the name of ‘Beacons’ and all are welcome to attend.
Graham Mayer

October

Robin Murch, a retired priest and Canon of Canterbury Cathedral who lives in Dawlish, regularly helps us out with services in the Teign Valley. This summer he was back in Canterbury at the time of the Lambeth Conference that, every ten years, draws together the Bishops of the Anglican Communion from across the world.

As you are probably aware, deep controversy has arisen with the Episcopal Church of the USA allowing the consecration of the Rt Revd Gene Robinson, who lives with a same-sex partner, as the Bishop of New Hampshire. This and other matters led some 250 bishops to boycott this year’s Lambeth Conference and instead to hold their own separate meeting in Jerusalem in June that they called GAFCON – Global Anglican Future Conference. About a thousand people, bishops, clergy and lay people, were at the conference.

Nevertheless some 670 bishops of varying views and cultural context came to Lambeth, and the press and media were looking forward to reporting on a church in deep schism and disarray. But it did not work out as they expected and Lambeth 2008 soon disappeared from the headlines. Robin Murch sent me an article that explains just why this was the case.

Robin writes:

In July, I visited Kent to meet with old friends and at the same time to drop in on the Lambeth Conference at Canterbury.

It was good to visit the campus and find a good number of friends who were staffing the Conference. Then to run into a number Bishops known to me and wish them well. It was lovely to visit the campus prayer space which was beautifully arranged and pray there, a place that would be well used through out the conference.

The opening service in the Cathedral was magnificent and beautifully arranged, reflecting the international nature of Anglicanism. The Gospel, danced by the Melanesian Brothers & Sisters, in full Pacific War paint complete with canoe! The sermon by the Archbishop of Colombo was the best I have heard for ages.
The Eucharistic setting was the, Missa Luba, a Roman Catholic Latin setting from the Congo led by the Cathedral Choir and its drummers.

Following all this, I have taken a keen interest in all that has happened since. Here is a short account of my reflections.

First, it was clear from the beginning that the media were not going to get the “raw meat,” of schism, show downs, and political violence that they craved for on the issue of homosexual or women bishops. They tried very hard. For example, the Bishops all marched through London to draw attention to the Millennium Development Goals, a splendid witness, only to find at the following press conference that the first question was about homosexuality. Could the Press not see the placards!
It was also clear that the planning committee, with Archbishop Rowan, had done a great deal of preparation and innovation for the conference. It was strongly spiritual, and Bible Study was paramount. The emphasis was on learning from God what God wanted from the Anglican Church, and seeing the Anglican Church as a particular gift from God for the world.

It was well understood that the Bishops had a great calling and role to play in God’s plans. They needed above all to listen to one another and to learn from one another what God was teaching them. To enable this to happen they were placed in ‘Indaba’ groups, each consisting of eight bishops drawn from all parts of the globe. These groups worked at the Bible study and shared their very diverse experiences of living the faith. They discovered mutually the hard task they been called to as Bishops, and yet how God had given them sufficient grace, often in dire situations of poverty or persecutions, or in the complexity of inner City life.

The result was a great ‘bonding of Bishops’, a deeper understanding and respect for one another, and the forming of friendships which will endure for many years. With this came a renewed perspective of what it is to be Anglican bonded to Christ and his mission. I must report too that the Bishop’s wives had a parallel conference under the leadership of Jane Williams, where there was great sharing and growth. And so it was that the conference achieved its main aim of renewing and empowering the corps of Bishops and their wives.

Of course work has to be done and this was set out in the ‘Lambeth reflections’, a document which distilled the views of Bishops gathered during their time together: a document to be studied and debated long into the future. From this will come in time a clear discernment of God’s will for Anglicanism that will filter down into the parishes in time.

So this Lambeth did not make formal resolutions. Neither did it seek to hold political debates with winners and losers and all the pain and frustration that can come from that, to say nothing of the divisions that can flourish when that approach is taken. No, this Lambeth broke new ground in behaving like a loving family, rather than the political bodies who use the customary adversarial approach to issues and debates.

I rejoice to see this new approach of working together recognising its truly Christian nature and spiritual base. This was very distinct from the way the World does its normal business as seen in politics today. So could this a model for a new approach that our rapidly changing world needs for its future? There is only one planet, only one humanity, and we have to live together, so let God show us how!

This is clearly what the Bishops discovered at Lambeth 2008, and we must now thank God for the Conference and pray for all our Bishops world wide. Then with expectation watch for the fruits that God will give us.
Robin Murch
Special occasions in October

Harvest Thanksgiving Services
As well as celebrating the good things in life at our Harvest Thanksgiving Services, we also focus on those who rarely enjoy all the things that we take so much for granted. As we hear almost daily of people who are suffering in different parts of the world, we also want our Harvest Celebrations to be also about making a generous offering to those who have so little.
Come and join us at
Ashton
Sunday 5th October at 11.30 a.m. followed by Harvest Lunch
Christow
Sunday 5th October at 11.30 a.m. followed by Harvest Lunch at the TVCH
Dunsford
Sunday 5th October at 10.00 a.m. for a Family Service
and also at 6.30 p.m. for Harvest Evensong followed by Harvest Supper
Bridford
Sunday 12th October at 11.30 a.m. followed by Harvest Lunch
Dunchideock
Sunday 12th October at 6.00 p.m. followed by Harvest Supper

Shoebox Sundays
October 26th at Christow and Dunsford or November 2nd at Doddiscombsleigh
Leaflets are now available for Operation Christmas Child and the dates for bringing in your shoeboxes are Sundays 26th October or 2nd November. On those days, at the 10.00 am services, the shoeboxes that have been collected will be blessed and sent on their way. Shoeboxes can also be collected in other ways – please contact Annabelle Hofmann (252961) for further information.

Taizé Style Worship – Bridford Church - Sunday 2nd November at 6.00 pm
This month we are providing another opportunity to experience worship using music and songs developed by the Taizé Community in France. The songs are short and simple, and very easily learned with very accessible and often lovely melodies. The setting is informal, and between the songs there will be readings, prayers and short periods of silence for reflection. Bridford Church - Sunday 2nd November at 6.00 pm. Come along from 5.30 onwards, and there will be a chance to learn some of the songs.

Fresh Expressions
If you have a Christian faith but feel that traditional church is not for you, you may be interested in what is now being called ‘fresh expressions of church’. These are new congregations that are built around the shared lives of the members, rather than the pastoral ministry of a local vicar or minister. In Exeter there is the Exeter Network Church offering a varied programme of meetings for all ages, details of which can be found at www.enc.uk.net . Also, on Friday evenings, there is Nightchurch at Exeter Cathedral – offering a full range of spiritual styles and approaches, with lots of different things going on at the same time - details from www.nightchurch.org.uk.

And to encourage more local ‘fresh expressions’, a course called ‘The Pioneer Disciple’ is being held in our area from next Easter. Further information is available at www.exeter.anglican.org/pioneer or at an introductory meeting on Thursday morning 2nd October from 10.00-12.00 at Willand Church Hall, led by the Exeter Diocese Pioneer Disciple Team.

Confirmation
Enquiries about Confirmation in 2009 can be made at any time by contacting me by phone, e-mail or in person (see below).

PCC Meetings
A reminder for PCC members of the next meetings:
Bridford Wednesday 8th October at 2.30 pm at The Spinney
Christow Monday 13th October at 7.45 pm at Station House
Doddicombsleigh Thursday 23rd October at 7.30 pm at Oakley

From The Registers
Baptisms
August 24th Evie Rose Chapman (Christow
Frederick James Barker (Dunsford)
August 31st Daniel Leonardo Barter (Dunsford)
September 14th Oliver Blake Cooper (Doddiscombsleigh)
Confirmations by the Bishop of Crediton at Ashton Church
August 31st Daniel Barter (Dunsford)
Lucy Bomford (Christow)
Janet Brook (Doddiscombsleigh)
Victoria Gilbert (Christow)
Elizabeth Hofmann (Ashton)
Juliana Meilton (Dunchideock)
William Nowell (Dunsford)
Heather Venables (Christow)
Weddings
September 27th Patrick Traill and Lucy Land (Doddiscombsleigh)
Funerals
September 15th Peter Kingdon (Dunsford)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone and e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) are available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

September

For many people, the month of September feels like the start of the year. This is especially true for parents as they experience both the anxiety of seeing their children move on to a new stage in their development and education, but also the relief of the long holidays coming to an end. The responsibility of keeping the kids active, safe and hopefully amused for six or more weeks gives way to a mixture of excitement and apprehension somehow symbolised in seeing them off with all their new gear.

It's a time of year that promises a fresh start, and not only to students and their teachers. It’s also a good time for beginning a new activity, learning a new skill, or joining a new club or group. It’s the time of year when adult classes get started, new courses begin, and many groups and societies get going again, giving us something to go out for as the dark nights draw in.

I can still remember how good it felt at school to begin again with fresh exercise books to write in. For a few days all the mistakes, blotches and crossings out of the past year could be forgotten. And that also seemed to symbolise the fresh start we were all making. All the mistakes, tensions, failures and whatever was going on at the end of last year could somehow be left behind and let go of. We all started again with a blank sheet. It would soon get written on, of course, because none of us is perfect and that is what life is like.

If you wanted to know what the Christian faith could offer you in today's world, the ability to start again with a blank sheet is one of them. The teaching of Christianity is that we do not have to be burdened with the mistakes and failings of the past. Jesus teaches that forgiveness has no limits apart from our own willingness to acknowledge and recognise the wrongs we have done, or the good things we should have done.

Interestingly the root meaning of the word ‘forgiveness’ is 'letting go'. In order to let go of something, you have to identify it and see it for what it is. So our path towards forgiveness can be easily blocked. It can be blocked by our own blindness, our pride and stubbornness. Jesus teaches that it can also be blocked by not being willing to forgive others. And this recognising and letting go has to happen, not only in our minds, but in our hearts.

In the course of two thousand years, the Christian faith has accumulated a wealth of language and jargon to describe this freedom that we all have to pick ourselves up and start again. Much of the traditional language about sin and grace and about being saved comes from St Paul’s writings in the New Testament. These are not always easy to understand. His target audience were people, both Jews and Gentiles, who lived in a culture that saw in the shedding of an innocent animal’s blood the power to atone for their shortcomings. So for them, all that St Paul and others wrote about the atoning sacrifice of Christ on the cross made perfect sense.

Not so for us. Furthermore there are passages in the Old Testament that make it quite clear that the assurance of God’s forgiveness does not depend on the sacrifice of the cross. Rather it comes from the eternal nature of God whose love and mercy are freely given to all who put their trust in him. Try reading Psalm 103 to see how even in days long before the Crucifixion, they knew God as ‘full of compassion and mercy, slow to anger and of great goodness’. They knew that ‘just as a good father is tender towards his children, so is the Lord tender to those who fear him’ – where the word ‘fear’ does not mean being afraid of God. To fear God has nothing to do with being terrified of what God might do to you. It is about treating God with reverence, respect and awe.

Generally speaking the teaching of the Bible is that we should sit lightly to religion and ritual. Far more important is faith, trusting in a God of love and mercy. Long before the time of Jesus, they already knew that ‘as far as the east is from the west, so far has he set our sins from us’. We would do well to heed such words ourselves. As the culture of perfection continues to grow around us, a lot of which does not seem to get further than the paper it is written on, we need to know how to deal with failure and shortcoming. The process of acknowledging failings and shortcomings and then feeling able to let them go is central to Christian faith. It is also reflected quite often in some of the other life strategies around today as well. Here is a deep truth about our human make-up, and we ignore it at our peril.

Special occasions in September

Harvest Thanksgiving Services
As well as celebrating the good things in life at our Harvest Thanksgiving Services, we also focus on those who rarely enjoy all the things that we take so much for granted. Hardly a week goes by without us hearing of people who are suffering in different parts of the world, and so we want our Harvest Celebrations also to be about making a generous offering to those who have so little.
Most of our churches will be celebrating Harvest next month. But first off the mark is Doddiscombsleigh on Sunday 21st September at 6.30 pm followed by an informal Harvest Supper in Church. All are welcome.

Teign Valley Youth Project
This month we look forward to welcoming our two new youth workers, Markus Trick, who is from the Black Forest region of Germany, with the other, at the time of writing this, still to be appointed. They will be joining Karly Jackson for the third year of our growing youth project and will be commissioned along with other new SWYM workers at a special service at Cullompton on Thursday 11th September at 7.30 pm. If anyone would like to come with me to this service, please get in touch.

PCC Meetings
A reminder for PCC members of the next meetings:
Dunchideock Monday 8th September at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Dunsford Wednesday 10th September at 7.45 pm at Christow Rectory
Ashton Monday 22nd September at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton

From The Registers
Weddings
August 2nd Christopher Newlove and Clare Smith (Doddiscombsleigh)
Funerals
July 29th Phyllis Edwards (Christow)
August 1st Andrew Allan Preston (Christow)
August 6th Kenneth Saunders (Christow)
August 13th Margaret Jones née Sanders (Dunchideock)
August 18th George Thomas Howell (Bridford)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

August

Once upon a time, a long time ago, there was a king whose son was getting married and so he sent out invitations to all the people that you would expect to be invited to a royal wedding. All the wealthiest and most influential people of the land, business men, landowners, community and religious leaders were expected to come, but when the great day arrived they all decided that they had better things to do.

The king felt deeply insulted, but he kept calm and assumed that there had been some misunderstanding. He sent out other servants this time to tell them that the feast was all prepared. The ox and the fat calves had been slaughtered. It was time to come. But even this made no difference. With one accord they shrugged their shoulders and acted as if they could not care less. Some even laid hands on the servants and treated them really badly, and a number of them were killed.

This time the king’s fury was fully unleashed. He sent armed soldiers to punish the murderers and to burn their property. As the feast was ready, servants were sent out into the streets to bring in all the people they could find, bad and good alike. Now the place was full but, as the king mingled with his guests, he noticed a man who had come in without bothering to change into the fine clothes been provided for them.
The king ordered his servants: Seize that man, tie him up hand and foot, and throw him into the outer darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth. And the story ends with the strange comment – for many are called but few are chosen.

This is one of many stories that Jesus told against the Jews – not against all Jews but specifically against the chief priests, the scribes and elders of the Temple where the previous day Jesus had driven out all the traders and moneychangers who had turned a house of prayer into a robbers’ den. It is a barely hidden attack on those who were supposed to be well versed in the teachings and word of God but who had become so entrenched in their positions of power and prestige, and so assured of the thick mesh of tradition and interpretation through which they strained everything that the law and prophets actually said about the ways and workings of God.

So while, for example, God wants us to keep one day of week as special allowing us to stand aside from our daily work, to rest, reflect and offer our thanksgiving to him, this had been turned into a complex and burdensome network of prohibitions, the kill-joy approach to the Sabbath that some of us can still remember from our early days. So it is hardly surprising that the society we live in has swung to the other extreme.

It’s the twist at the end of the story that pulls us up a bit sharp. The king’s invitation had gone out far and wide, far beyond the boundaries of orthodoxy and expectation, but it seems that just turning up to the generous feast was not good enough. God is infinitely generous and there are no restrictions placed on those whom he calls, but in this strange note of warning, Jesus suggests that God is also looking for something in return, some kind of active and positively committed response. For many are called, says Jesus to us, but few are chosen.
Special occasions in August

Group Confirmation Service with Bishop Bob
– Sunday 31st August 2008 at 11.00 am at Ashton
We look forward to welcoming Bishop Bob for the first time to the Teign Valley at the end of August. Please remember in your prayers the group of 6 adults and 3 teenagers from Ashton, Christow, Doddiscombsleigh, Dunchideock and Dunsford who are getting ready to be confirmed by him at our Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. The service will be held at Ashton Parish Church and all are welcome to come along.
Group Choral Evensong – Sunday 17th August at Bridford at 6.30 pm
It may be surprising how many people still enjoy a good old Prayer Book Evensong, not necessarily all the time, but on occasions especially if we can muster a choir to lead the singing. It won’t be like the Cathedral, of course, but still a service to relax into and allow Cranmer’s text to lead us into prayer and contemplation. We had some sixty people at Dunsford in June at 6.30 pm. This month we go to Bridford. All are welcome and if anyone would like to be part of the choir please get in touch with Liz Hogg, the organist at Bridford Church (252595).

Teign Valley Youth Project
As reported last month, following the recent appeal for pledges of financial support for the Youth Project, the response was so good that we are now committed to having three trainee workers who will each be focussed especially on one of the three areas that are covered: the villages of our group of churches, the Chudleigh group and Hennock, and finally Kingsteignton with Teigngrace and Stover.
We are now looking forward to welcoming two new workers. One of these has already been appointed. Marcus Trick, a young man from Germany, who speak excellent English will be joining us in September. Our most pressing need now is to find some accommodation for him, either in a family or some other kind of room or place where he could live. A certain amount of financial support would be available from the project to help pay for this. If you think you might be able to offer some form of accommodation, then please get in touch with me as soon as possible.

PCC Meeting
Members of all our PCCs are reminded of the meeting with the Archdeacon of Exeter on Wednesday 20th August at 7.30 pm in the Bowden Room at the TVCH. Refreshments will be served from 7.00 pm.

From The Registers
Baptisms
July 6th Elizabeth Rees Stephan (Dunsford)
July 12th Poppy White (Doddiscombsleigh)
July 21st Purdey Caygill (Bridford)
Weddings
June 28th Nathan Lochhead and Sally Wyatt (Christow)
July 12th Andrew Turner and Rebecca Jackson (Bridford)
Funerals
July 11th Bessie Hine (Service of Thanksgiving at Doddiscombsleigh)
July 21st Christopher Jenne (Interment at Dunchideock)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can. The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.
Graham Mayer

July

It is well over a month since the House of Commons was voting on the latest Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill. Its purpose was to bring up to date laws passed back in the 1990s so that they would reflect the scientific advances that have been made in the last ten years or more. One of these advances is to do with hybrid embryos, where the nuclei of human cells are inserted into animal eggs and then the resulting embryos are kept for up to fourteen days to harvest stem cells. The reason for using animal cells is that there are not enough human eggs around for generating embryos.

Another advance is to do with so-called ‘saviour siblings’. This is where fully human embryos are created for a short time with the hope of providing matching tissue for a sick brother or sister. Not everyone approves. Some people believe it is immoral to tinker with human life in this way. To use and then destroy an embryo, a potential human being, for medical research, in the hope of finding cures for diseases and conditions that have so far eluded us - this has even been branded by leaders in the Roman Catholic Church as a monstrous practice. However, as we know, a free vote among MPs produced an overwhelming majority in favour, and so these practices are now legal, at least as far as our country is concerned.

So who is playing God in this debate? Are the scientists playing God by trying to interfere with living organisms in this way? Or are those who speak with authority as Church leaders playing God by pronouncing categorically against this search for medical cures that they see as taking place at the cost of human rights, human dignity and human life? How do we go about seeking God’s will in this matter? What would Jesus say about it?

One thing we know about Jesus is that he was into curing people of diseases and afflictions in a big way. There was a story that we reflected on in church a few weeks ago that told how Jesus went about curing every disease and every sickness. Then, because there was so much work to do and so few people to do it, he authorised his twelve disciples to go out as well to cast out unclean spirits and to cure every disease and every sickness. Every disease and every sickness – the same phrase was used twice over.

We noticed that Jesus was talking about sicknesses and diseases, not about sick and diseased people. It was not just the curing of sick people that he is concerned for. The good news of the kingdom that Jesus was announcing through his work included the eradication of every sickness and every disease. So it seems reasonable to assume that, if we are to follow the lead given by Jesus in this respect, Christians are called to be not just in the business of founding and running hospitals, curing and caring for sick people. They are also called to be involved in medical research, in the business of eradicating every sickness and every disease.

Many of us are aware how over the centuries, especially over the last hundred years, advances in medical knowledge and expertise have been spectacular. The showing of the drama series, Casualty 1908, earlier this year made that painfully clear. We have come an amazingly long way. But what drives us to do this? Are we programmed in some way to feel love and compassion for those who suffer and to strive towards the eradication of what causes that suffering? Many of us might say that to respond in that way is to be fully human, whereas those who are able to stand by and watch people suffer without feeling are in some way sub-human.

Christians – and members of some other faiths as well – believe that God’s plan for his world aims at the fulfilment of our human potential, not only for each individual person but for humanity as a whole. We find this throughout the writings of the Bible and we hear it most clearly expressed in the words and actions of Jesus. Jesus said that he came so that we might have life and have it abundantly. That was his vision. That was his way of describing God’s eternal plan, announcing the good news of God’s kingdom, and part of it was to cure every disease and every sickness.

Our understanding is that Jesus chose the twelve apostles to be the foundation of the new people of God, just as under the old arrangement the twelve sons of Jacob became the fathers of the chosen people of the twelve tribes of Israel. So when Jesus delegated his work to the twelve apostles, he was symbolically delegating his work to the whole people of God. This gives us added authority, if we need it, to pursue the curing of every disease and every sickness. It could help us to make a choice between making use of a human or hybrid embryo, on the one hand, at the stage when it can only be observed under a microscope and only consists of a relatively tiny number of cells and, on the other, helping a fully developed human person whose life potential is seriously undermined by any one of the diseases and conditions that we know about in the world.

Special occasions in July

Youth Worship Event – Chudleigh School – Sunday 6th July 7.00-8.30 pm.
This is a worship event for young people being organised by Vicki and Karly, our youth workers. Please note the change of date. All are welcome.
Summer Songs of Praise – The Old Rectory – Sunday 13th July at 11.30 pm
By kind invitation of Nick and Juliette Dudman, we are planning to hold an open-air Praise Service and Barbecue in the Old Rectory Garden on 13th July at 11.30 am. Further information will be found in the Christow section.

Future of the Teign Valley Youth Project
Following the recent appeal for pledges of financial support for the Youth Project, the response was so good that we are now committed to having three trainee workers who will each be focussed especially on one of the three areas that are covered: the villages of our group of churches, the Chudleigh group and Hennock, and finally Kingsteignton with Teigngrace and Stover.
When we consider the size of the area that our current two workers have to cover, it is amazing just how much Vicki and Louise, and now Vicki and Karly, have been able to achieve and how many young people they have been in contact with. This July we say goodbye to Vicki after two years and thank her for all her commitment, courage and passion for the work. Her place as lead worker will be taken by Karly and we look forward to welcoming two new workers.
One of these has already been appointed. Marcus Trick, a young man from Germany, who speak excellent English will be joining us in September. Our most pressing need now is to find some accommodation for him, either in a family or some other kind of room or place where he could live. A certain amount of financial support would be available from the project to help pay for this. If you think you might be able to offer accommodation, then please get in touch with me as soon as possible.

Confirmation Service in the Valley – Sunday 31st August 2008 at 11.00 am
Please remember in your prayers the group of 6 adults and 4 teenagers from Ashton, Christow, Doddiscombsleigh, Dunchideock and Dunsford who are getting ready to be confirmed by Bishop Bob at our Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. The service will be held at Ashton Parish Church.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Christow – Monday 7th July at 7.45 pm in Church

From The Registers
Weddings
June 14th Paul Cary and Heidi Stevens (Christow)
Funerals
June 13th Gwendoline Emma Louise Gray (Bridford)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can. The phone number is (01647) 252845 or by e-mail on rivertide@btinternet.com.
Graham Mayer

June

With the arrival of June, there’ll be plenty of people looking forward to a great summer of sport. Some people will have made their plans and booked their places at Wimbledon, or at one of the Test Matches, or even at the Ernst-Happel Stadium in Vienna for the final of Euro 2008. Then there will be the Beijing Olympics in August and lots of excitement if any of our athletes, whether they are runners, rowers, riders or swimmers, can get at all close to winning a gold medal.

Even for the majority of us who have to watch these events at a distance on our screens, the excitement can get pretty intense. We may not get the same atmosphere but we certainly get a decent view plus all the information and insights that come our way thanks to the commentary and the interviews with the participants. Supporting our own national teams or players can be great fun, and no doubt there will be no shortage of red and white flags and faces around over the next few weeks. But wherever the players or athletes come from, whatever their race or nationality, to see them in action is to witness an amazing display of skill, stamina and both mental and physical agility.

None of that is achieved without the highest levels of discipline and commitment. If a player feels the need to leave a match in order to support his wife during her labour in the maternity ward, then that simply underlines the kind of sacrifice these people are usually prepared to make. The prospect of athletes competing for the world’s highest prizes in Beijing this year also reminds me of the comparison that St Paul makes in his writing between those kinds of races and the race that we are all entered for simply by being born.

Two thousand years ago, St Paul watched Greek athletes competing for the wreaths of laurel in the same way as we will see our athletes competing for gold, silver and bronze. He was struck by the way they pummelled their bodies into submission to get them to do what they wanted. He was impressed by the perseverance and the pain required for them to achieve their goal. It reminded him of the kind of perseverance, commitment and discipline that can be involved in living the life of faith. The main difference is that, in the Greek games, only the winner gained the prize. In the human race, the same prize is there for all who take part in the game.

When it comes to developing our physical or spiritual strength, natural inclinations and appetites are not usually much help. It is not really an exaggeration to speak of the need to crucify the flesh, and the truly great athletes and many of the lesser ones will know what that is all about. So too will others who aspire to excellence in other fields. Those who climb the mountain paths of faith also discover there are sacrifices to be made. Some ways of living and behaving and thinking are simply incompatible with living the life of faith. However natural and instinctive they may feel, they have to go, but when they are gone they are rarely missed. St Paul summed it up in one of his famous slogans: God forbid that I should boast of anything except the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world is crucified to me and I to the world.

Special occasions in June

Group Choral Evensong – Sunday 15th June at Dunsford at 6.30 pm
It may be surprising how many people still enjoy a good old Prayer Book Evensong, not necessarily all the time, but on occasions especially if we can muster a choir to lead the singing. It won’t be like the Cathedral, of course, but still a service to relax into and allow Cranmer’s text to lead us into prayer and contemplation. There will be two opportunities this summer – the first this month at Dunsford on Sunday 15th June at 6.30 pm. All are welcome, and if anyone would like to be part of the choir please get in touch with Ivor Pincombe, the organist at Dunsford Church.
Ashton Summer Celebration – Sunday 22nd June at 11.30 pm
Once again there will be a special celebration service at Ashton, focussing this year on young people of all ages, and featuring the St George’s Singers led by one-time Ashtonian George Horrell, and followed by a village lunch. For further information, please see the Ashton section or contact Annabelle (252961).
Group Eucharist and Picnic – Sunday 29th June
– Doddiscombsleigh and Hound Tor
A fifth Sunday service at Doddi followed by a picnic on the moors at Hound Tor. Bring your own picnic and anything else you need – if you have space in your car, please consider inviting those who have no transport.
Youth Worship Event – Chudleigh School – Friday 4th July 7.00-8.30 pm.
This is a worship event for young people being organised by Vicki and Karly, our youth workers. All are welcome.

The Revd Bernard Humphreys (1910-2008)
It was eight years ago this month, on Trinity Sunday back in the year 2000, that the Revd Bernard Humphreys officiated at the altar in Christow Church celebrating his 90th birthday and the 63rd anniversary of his ordination. Since then he has not had the strength to take services but he was with us in church last summer to mark the 70 years since he had been ordained to serve as a priest in the Church of England. But even if the flesh was weak, his mind and spirit were as alert as ever, even in his last few days which he spent in Wonford Hospital and at the Exeter Hospice where he died last month. For many years, since retiring to the Teign Valley, Bernard was regularly officiating at services and helping out as the regular full-time clergy found themselves stretched thinner and thinner across the various parishes. He was a very humble man, traditional in his own tastes but always aware that the world and the church were moving on. He served faithfully as a parish priest for over forty years, fulfilling a ministry that took him first to Streatham in South London and then to the dioceses of Chester, Lichfield and Chelmsford from where he finally retired in 1978. Throughout it all he was strongly supported by his wife, Connie, whom he missed very much after she died in 2001. Now we shall miss Bernard, we pray that he may rest in peace, and our sympathy and prayers are also with his daughter, Liz, and her husband, Bill, who have cared for Bernard with such love and dedication these last few years.

Confirmation Service in the Valley – Sunday 31st August 2008 at 11.00 am
This is your last opportunity to join the group of 6 adults and 3 teenage boys who are getting ready to be confirmed by Bishop Bob at our Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. If you think this might be for you, please let me know by phone (252845) e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) or in person.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Ashton – Monday 2nd June at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Bridford – Wednesday 4th June at 2.30 pm at Connetts Cottage
Dunsford – Wednesday 4th June at 7.45 pm at 9 Brownings Mead

From The Registers
Baptisms
May 4th Sophie Ormerod (Christow)
Weddings
May 17th David Lowrie and Katharine Land (Doddiscombsleigh)
May 24th Mark Blake and Ceri Gow (Dunsford)
Funerals
April 9th Doreen Morris (Dunsford)
May 18th Elizabeth Tottie Hammond (Interment at Ashton)
May 22nd The Revd Bernard Humphreys (Christow)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

May

There’s a story told in the Old Testament about a king in Babylon who had a very troubling dream. So he summoned all his clairvoyants, his priests, his magic-men and all those who claimed to be skilled in the interpretation of dreams. But because the dream had been so vivid and troubling, he wanted to be sure that he could trust the interpretation given by his wise men. So he decreed that they should not only interpret the dream but also tell him what the dream was all about. Naturally they found this task quite impossible.

Eventually Daniel, a Jewish captive, and a man of God, heard of the king’s problem and offered to tell the king all about it. In his dream, the king had seen a huge statue, of bright and terrifying appearance. Each part was cast in a different material, gold at the head, silver at the chest and arms, bronze for the belly and thighs, legs of iron and the feet a mixture of iron and clay. At the end of his dream, the king saw a piece of natural rock, uncut by human hands, strike the feet of the statue which then collapsed and shattered into such tiny pieces that they were all blown away by the wind.

Daniel told the king that the four metals represented four imperial powers that would follow one another in succession, starting with the present Babylonian kingdom and ending with the empire established by Alexander the Great of Greece. The feet of iron and clay, which do not naturally bond together, represented the badly judged marriage alliances that eventually brought the fourth empire crashing down. By contrast the natural rock, uncut by human hand, represented the eternal kingdom of God that would succeed all earthly kingdoms and last for ever.

This story was told at a time of great religious persecution for the Jews and it was intended to strengthen their faith that God’s kingdom would far outlast the rule of their Gentile persecutors. But it’s also a striking image of how trusting in human pretensions and manmade institutions will never compare with putting one’s faith in God’s eternal plan and purposes.

Nowadays we might well feel that we are living in a wobbly world. We see rock-solid institutions like banks collapsing around us. We hear of financial whizz-kids playing their games with our money and our mortgages. On top of that national and individual debt is running at an all time high.

Then there are other uncertainties such as global warming and carbon footprints, crises in our schools, hospitals, prisons, transport system, and so on, concerns about family life and the behaviour of young people, and the fear of international terrorism – just to mention a few!

It is commonly supposed that we now live in a post-Christian modern secular society that no longer needs to think too much about God’s plans and purposes for the world.
The unchallenged assumption is that we think we ought to be able to create a perfect world. So when we come up against inconvenient factors such as human nature, human error, and unreliable, unpredictable, natural forces, we still feel confident that one day, just given time, these also can be overcome and subjected to our human will. We even try and run away from the fact that one day we will all die.

Not everyone thinks like that, of course, and life in today’s world is certainly not all the doom and gloom that the media like to present it as. Humanity has come a long way, but we should not forget that all the resources required for human advancement, including our brains, were given to us. So we can safely say that the advances we are able to make have to be part of God’s plan too. Since he provided the resources for them, that has to be the logical conclusion.

But God also gave us free will – the freedom to choose whether we acknowledge him or not. Statistics tell us that one person in ten attends church each week to worship God. That is not to say that other people do not pray or worship God in their hearts. But it’s interesting how that statistic fits in with another story from the Bible.

On his way to Jerusalem, Jesus came across ten lepers on the road who all cried out to him for mercy. Jesus spoke to them and told them to go and show themselves to the priests who had the authority to pronounce them clean. In other words, he was telling them that their prayer had been answered and God would heal them. As they went away, they saw that their skin disease had vanished. One of them turned back, came and prostrated himself in worship at Jesus’ feet and thanked him profusely. Jesus said: But there were ten men who were healed and blessed by God. So where are the other nine?

Special occasions in May

Ascension Day – Thursday 1st May – 7.30 pm Ashton
There will be a Group Eucharist to celebrate Ascension Day at Ashton at 7.30 pm.
Day of Pentecost (Whitsunday) – 11th May – 10.00 Bridford and Dunsford
Traditionally this is the third most important Christian festival after Christmas and Easter – a celebration of God the Holy Spirit.
Songs of Praise – Sunday 11th May at Doddiscombsleigh at 11.00 am
Songs of Praise services are often popular as they are relaxed and you get to choose the hymns. We have a few planned for the spring and summer and our next one is this month at Doddiscombsleigh on 11th May. All are welcome!

Youth Project Anniversary Service – 18th May – 6.30 pm at Dunsford
Our Teign Valley Youth Project, which we share with Kingsteignton and the Chudleigh group of churches, is now two years old. Our anniversary service this year is going to be in the valley at Dunsford on Sunday 18th May at 6.30 pm. Our guest speaker will be Steve Jones, former Diocesan Youth Adviser, and now part of the team running the weekly Night Church at Exeter Cathedral. Our SWYM contact, Michael ‘Tiff’ Tiffany is also coming along, and of course Vicki and Karly as well. If you don’t want to miss it, please put it on your calendar now!

Archdeacon’s Visitation – Tuesday 20th May
This year we go to Kenn Parish Church – your churchwardens and your Rural Dean will be sworn in. Refreshments will be served from 6.30 pm and the Archdeacon will be available for informal conversation. The service itself begins at 7.30 pm finishing by 8.30 pm. All are very welcome.

Confirmation Service in the Valley – Sunday 31st August 2008
We currently have 6 adults and 3 teenage boys getting ready to be confirmed by Bishop Bob at our Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. This opportunity does not come our way very often so if you would like to make this the year when you confirmed for yourself the faith into which you were baptised, then please get in touch. One of our group has never been baptised so that will also be happening at the same time. If you think this might be for you, please let me know by phone (252845) e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) or in person.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Ashton – Friday 16th May at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Bridford – Wednesday 4th June at 2.30 pm at Connetts Cottage
Christow – Monday 12th May at 7.45 pm in Church
Dunchideock – Monday 19th May at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Dunsford – Wednesday 7th May at 7.45 pm at 9 Brownings Mead

From The Registers
Baptisms
March 30th Ruben Cuming (Dunchideock)
Funerals
March 28th Keith Beer (Interment of Ashes at Doddiscombsleigh)
April 1st Una Greenhalgh (Burial at Dunchideock)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

April

Canon Robin Murch is one of the retired priests who helps us out quite regularly in the Teign Valley Churches and whose ministry is much appreciated by many in our congregations. Robin is quite a radical thinker and works tirelessly for causes that he considers to be of great importance. So for a change, I am happy to replace my own thoughts for the month with a contribution from Robin and to give some of his personal concerns a wider audience. He writes:

I have recently been glad to receive two invitations that celebrate the passing of 50 years. When I think of them, it does not seem that far back. The first one is to join with friends who passed out of RMA Sandhurst, intake 21, as young officers in the British Army. So in August, I shall return to Sandhurst for a parade, to watch the new cadets, young men and women parading. Then there will be a good lunch, plenty of conversation and a host of memories.

One of which is the arduous times we had on Salisbury plain digging nuclear-proof dug outs. We were told that two feet of earth would reduce radiation by 50% should we have to endure a nuclear strike on the battlefield. We also watched oil barrels being blown up a mile away, simulating a nuclear strike.

In those days nuclear war was a strong possibility then and young officers would have been in the thick of it. So it is with some relief I will gladly turn up at RMAS in
August to be with my friends in an entirely different world.

The second 50th anniversary will be the Aldermaston March by CND. Some of you will be able to recall on the television pictures of the thousands who made their protest against nuclear weapons. Among them marched many Christians, the Venerable Canon Collins in cassock, the inspirational Quakers, the Catholic Bruce Kent, and many more besides. The continuous pressure of opinion from CND over years gave us the Partial Test Ban Treaty, the Non-Proliferation Treaty, the prevention of the Neutron Bomb, and helped persuade President Nixon not use Nuclear weapons in Vietnam. It also led to the removal of Cruise Missiles from UK.

Part of my Easter celebration this year was to go to Aldermaston in gratitude for all CND has done to make the World a safer place. But this is not a mission accomplished celebration, far from it. The Aldermaston Nuclear Bomb factory is currently under expensive refurbishment costing millions in order to make even better nuclear weapons. Sadly the current trend is for battlefield nuclear weapons, the very things I was trained to survive in the army 50 years ago. Also continuing are the regular convoys of vehicles late at night taking weapons of mass destruction across the UK to and from the Trident submarines in Scotland.

The obvious question is whether we in the UK need these nuclear weapons now, and also whether we can afford them. So while we can celebrate the fact that nuclear weapons have never been used by the UK, it is also fair to point out that the cost of having these weapons has been an immense drain on the financial resources of the country for years. It makes you question whether tax payers’ money could be better spent.

So I went prayerfully and thankfully to Aldermaston with the Exeter CND group in their coach on Easter Monday. My prayers are that in 50 years time there will be no need for CND and I see that as an important ‘kingdom task’ to work for even at my age.
Robin Murch

Special occasions in April
Easter Songs of Praise – Sunday 6th April at Christow at 6.00 pm
Songs of Praise services are often popular as they are relaxed and you get to choose the hymns. We have a few planned for the spring and summer starting this month at Christow on 6th April. All are welcome!
St George’s Service with the DVD of Canon Andrew White (Priest at St George’s Church, Baghdad) – Sunday 20th April at 6.30 pm at Dunchideock
This informal service will include a showing of the DVD of Canon Andrew White speaking about his ministry in Baghdad.
Rogation Sunday – 27th April –Dunsford at 6.30 pm
The word ‘rogation’ simply means asking, and it is an ancient tradition on Rogation Sunday to ask for God’s blessing on the crops of the fields and by extension on all that goes on in our village communities. This year there will be a Rogation Service at Dunsford beginning in church at 6.30 pm.
Spring Celebration at the Lord Haldon Hotel – Sunday 27th April at 3.00 pm
This popular annual event which is very suitable for families includes outdoor activities and tea followed by a Songs of Praise at the hotel. All are welcome.
Ascension Day – Thursday 1st May – 7.30 pm Ashton
There will be a Group Eucharist to celebrate Ascension Day at Ashton at 7.30 pm.

Confirmation Service in the Valley – Sunday 31st August 2008
We currently have 6 adults and 3 teenage boys getting ready to be confirmed by Bishop Bob at our Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. This opportunity does not come our way very often so if you would like to make this the year when you became confirmed for yourself the faith into which you were baptised, then please get in touch. One of our group has never been baptised so that will also be happening at the same time. If you think this might be for you, please let me know by phone (252845) e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com) or in person.

Teign Valley Youth Project
Thank you very much to all those who have replied positively to our invitation to become a Friend of the TVYP and committed yourselves to supporting a third youth worker in our project. The response has been very encouraging. If you did not receive the letter and would like to find out more about the project and its future, then please let me know. We shall be celebrating the second anniversary of the project next month, Sunday 18th May at 6.30 pm at Dunsford. Our guest speaker will be Steve Jones, former Diocesan Youth Adviser, and now part of the team running the weekly Night Church at Exeter Cathedral. Our SWYM contact, Michael ‘Tiff’ Tiffany is also coming along, and of course Vicki and Karly as well. If you don’t want to miss it, please put it on your calendar now!

Annual Church Meetings
All parishioners are invited to attend our Annual Church Meetings:
Ashton Friday 25th April at 2.30 pm in the Village Hall
Bridford Wednesday 26th March at 2.30 pm in Church
Christow Monday 21st April at 7.45 pm in Church
Doddiscombsleigh Thursday 3rd April at 7.30 pm in Church
Dunsford Wednesday 2nd April at 7.30 pm in Church
All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches. Parish representatives on Deanery Synod are also to be elected this year.

From The Registers
Funerals
February 23rd Christopher Jenne ((Dunchideock) at Exeter Crematorium followed by Thanksgiving Service in Church
March 4th Joy Meredith (Bridford)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

March

Click for more information

February

When Easter comes as early as it does this year, on March 23rd, then we have no sooner got Christmas behind us than we find ourselves arriving at Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) and Ash Wednesday on February 6*, the beginning of Lent. Pancakes were once presumably regarded as an efficient way of clearing the larder of any tempting goodies - like eggs, butter and sugar -before beginning the austere business of fasting. Then it was serious dieting all the way up to Easter.
Nowadays cutting down on the calories is usually done in the hope of enhancing the beauty of the body rather than the good of the soul. In any case it is quite easy for the soul to get quite screwed up in the endeavour to achieve self-denial. Success can lead to pride and to feelings of smug superiority as you glow in the achievement of losing some of those unwanted kilos. Then vanity takes over and you admire your improved shape in the bedroom mirror. On the other hand, failure breeds feelings of guilt and worthlessness, and leads us to seek comfort. You can't win either way. So we end up muttering 'What the hell1.' and reach for the biscuit tin or head for the wine shelves.
There's no getting away from it. We are seriously flawed beings or, if you prefer, the devil is very subtle and cunning in the ways he gets at us. So maybe the wise way is not to make a song and dance about keeping Lent. There's little point in struggling on with self-denial and then gasping with relief when you return to normality on Easter Day.
Just like the Sabbath, Lent was made for man (sorry, people) and not the other way round. The purpose of the seasons in the Christian calendar is to highlight things that we are meant to be conscious of all the year round. So activities that we give more prominence to during Lent - prayer, Bible study, self-denial, self-examination - are not to be taken up and then dropped once Easter arrives. Rather it is about resetting our priorities and restoring a better balance. It is a time for reviewing the use we make of our time, our gifts, our possessions. And for believers it is a time for renewing our commitment to Cod, and for walking in his way rather than always simply doing what we feel we want to do. Then hopefully we will take what we discover from this process into the rest of the year, and the rest of our days.

Ash Wednesday - 6 February at JO.OO am/7.30pm
To get Lent off to a start, there will be Ash Wednesday services at Christow at 10.00 in the morning and at Dunchideock at 7.30 in the evening.

This year's Lent Course: Listening to Cod's World
It is being said that people in our country today are often negative about the Church but positive about Cod and about faith. What is this all about? Is it true? What view do you take of Cod and the Church today? And what about your family, friends, neighbours or other people that you meet day by day? What is their view? And how much do we listen to what people are saying in the world today?
Our Lent Course this year has the title 'Listening to Cod's World'. It's an attempt to look a bit more carefully at the place of Christian faith and the Church in the world today. It lasts for five weeks - but you don't necessarily have to be there for each one. At each meeting there will be a video presentation, a short Bible passage to read and some questions to guide us in discussion. These are some of the questions we shall be looking at week by week:
Is there a real hunger for Cod in people's lives today?
Why do some people have a negative view of the Christian faith
today?
Does the Christian gospel make any sense today?
Has the Church passed its 'use by' date? Does it need updating?
Do we need fresh ways of expressing and living our faith? Anyone is welcome to go along to any of the groups that are on offer - here are the days and times:
• Wednesday lunchtimes 12.30-2.30 at the Walled Garden Tea Rooms, Dunsford including a Soup Lunch (soup~bread/cheese~tea/coffee) at £4 per head. Advance booking is not essential but would be helpful • please contact Daphne Sharland (252122). Starting 13th February and running each Wednesday until 19* March (except for 5* Mar)
• Thursday mornings 1O.3O-12.OO at the home of Francis and Daphne Leversedge, The Spinney, Bridford (Tel: 252180) starting 14* February for 5 weeks.
• Thursday evenings 7.3O-9.OO at the home of Reg and Rosemarie Canvin, Limuru, Christow (Tel: 252612) starting 14* February for 5 weeks.
For directions, please contact the host. If you can't make it each week, don't worry - come when you can!

Noah & the Animals - Christow Church - Sunday 17th Feb. at 5.00 pm
Those of you who enjoyed our Jonah service back in September should make a note of this date. This time we are celebrating the Noah story with songs, music, drama and action - aimed at youngsters and the young-at-heart of all ages. Worship can be fun - come and see for yourself!

Mothering Sunday - Sunday 2nd March at 1O.OO am - at Ashton and Dunsford
This year Mothering Sunday falls on 18th March and there will be special Mothering Sunday Services at Ashton and Dunsford Churches at 10.00 am.

Five Pays with Bishop Bob -June 20O9
Bishop Bob, our current Bishop of Crediton, has warmed the hearts and nourished the faith of many people since he arrived in the diocese three years ago. In June next year (2009) he is planning to spend five days among us in Kenn Deanery as part of the celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter. This is not only an opportunity to tell the story of the Church in Devon but also for him to be available to meet, speak, discuss and take questions from any groups or organisations, schools, pubs or clubs, who might like to put on an event or meeting with Bishop Bob as guest speaker. It seems like a long way ahead, but if anyone would like to include him in their programme from 10 -14th June 2009, it would be helpful to hear from you in the next few months. We are hoping to have draft plan soon after Easter. Please contact me on O16472 52845'or -mail (rivertide@btinternet.com)

Confirmation Service in the Valley - Sunday 3f August 20O8
Bishop Bob has also booked to be with us here in the Teign Valley for a Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. Bishops do not often come to our village churches so this is a rare opportunity to be confirmed by a Bishop here on our own patch. These days there are usually more adults than children getting confirmed, and certainly you're never too old - though for, youngsters, them minimum age is around 10. If you think this might be for you, or would like to know about confirmation and what it is, please get in touch without obligation by phone 01647252845 or e-mail (rivertide@btintemet.com).

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Dunsford - Wednesday 30th January at 7.45 pm at Bridge House Doddiscombsleigh - Thursday 31st January at 7.30 pm at Oakley
Dunchideock - Monday 4th February at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Bridford - Thursday 14 February at 2.30 pm at The Spinney,
Christow - Wednesday 12th March at 7.45 pm at Station House

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.OO-11.OOm the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

January

A little bit of nonsense to start the New Year. They now normally occur once every 110 years – much longer than most of us live – but if you were ten or older on the last day of 2001 and survived into 2002, two will have occurred during your lifetime. The closest they have ever been in the Christian era is two years apart, and before that happened they were usually every ten years. But the next one will not be for another 104 years.

Or think of a number. Double it, add 10, halve it, add 4, and then take away the number you first thought of. The answer will always be the same.

For some people numbers can be an endless source of fascination. Numbers can also have power over people, leading to irrational fears especially where 13 is concerned, or about things coming in 3’s. It’s amazing how often the number 3 comes up again and again. Many of us grew up to sing about three blind mice, Goldilocks had trouble with a family of three bears, and then there were the three pigs who by the hair of their chinny-chin-chins did not want the wolf to come in.

Although in some circumstances two are company and the third is a gooseberry, we often feel more comfortable with a threesome. In early January, Christians remember one of the best known threesomes, the ‘kings’ or ‘wise men’ who spotted a great light in the sky. They took it as the sign that a great king was being born, and decided to go in search of him.

They followed their star from their homelands in the east, somewhere in the region of Iran or maybe even Afghanistan, and it led them in a north-westerly direction towards the ancient kingdom of Judah. The story, as only Matthew tells it in his gospel, is a gripping one, full of intrigue, plotting and miraculous escape. In all innocence, they unwittingly stumbled into a political hornet’s nest, and nearly became puppets in King Herod’s murderous scheme to cling on to power.

But instead of returning to tell him where the new born king could be found, they felt guided to return home another way. As a consequence, the insecure Herod decided to leave nothing to chance. He ordered the massacre of all baby boys under the age of two, an act of desperate cruelty only too typical of the way many kings have acted to keep themselves in power. Joseph and Mary fled with the baby to Egypt, returning home only when all the trouble had died down.

It’s a good yarn by any standards, and one that introduces very mysterious elements into the story of Christ’s birth. Was there such a star? And what strange gifts to bring to a young child and his parents!

Some astronomers have claimed to identify an unusual alignment of planets or the rare rising of an exceptionally bright star at around the time of the birth of Christ. It’s as if, in order to communicate with these clever men, God used not angels but a star, so that those who interpreted the stars would realise just what was going on over in the land of Judah: nothing less than the birth of a divine child. The gifts that the men brought underlined this interpretation: gold for a king, incense for a priest, and myrrh for one who was to suffer and die.

It was also significant that those who brought them, those who came to worship the divine child, were non-Jews. They were from the outside world. The divine child was to be Saviour for people of all races, all nations, and all faiths.

We celebrate the coming of the Wise Men on January 6th, and in some countries this is more important than Christmas day. It marks the beginning of the season that we call Epiphany, a word that means that God revealed or manifested himself to the world through his Son. During Epiphany, we celebrate not only the manifestation to these wise men from afar. We also revisit other stories where the divinity of Christ is displayed or manifested, such as his baptism, the story of the water turning into wine and other miracles. More amazing stories to ponder on in the early weeks of the New Year.

Getting to Church this Christmas - as some of you receive this magazine before Christmas, here are some reminders:
• Carol Services
Dunchideock – Sunday 23rd December at 5.00 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – Sunday 23rd December at 5.30 pm
Bridford – Christmas Eve at 6.00 pm
• Crib Service
Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 4.00 pm
• Midnight Mass
Ashton / Doddiscombsleigh / Dunchideock / Dunsford – all starting at 11.30 pm
• Christmas Day
Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am
Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

Looking back to Christmas
You may read this before Christmas is over, but thank you to those who have worked hard to prepare and decorate our churches for the Christmas services – with trees, flowers, candles, cribs and everything else that combines to provide a seasonal atmosphere for our worship. Thank you also to who have played, read or provided any other special input into our Christingle and Carol Services. At a busy time of year, all this extra work and time that is given is much appreciated. Thank you also to our Bell Ringers – not just at Christmas – but for their time and commitment throughout the year that are appreciated by so many.

Sunday after Christmas – Sunday 30th December
There will be a Group Eucharist at Dunsford at 10.00 am
The future of Unity
Some of you will have heard that Steve and Linda Jordan are making plans to leave Bridford and so sadly are unable to continue as Editors of Unity. First of all, I would like to thank and congratulate them on maintaining the quality and dependability of our Valley Church and Community magazine, and for all the work they have put in each month since they took over from Alec Robertson. I am delighted to say that Mike Piggott has generously offered to succeed them and that June Piggott will continue to be responsible for the advertisements. A new editor means new ideas and that can be a good thing when it stops us getting stuck in a rut. So some things may now look a bit different at first but I’m sure we will soon get used to them. Mike is also offering a Letters to the Editor section so you will have a chance to tell him what you think!

Looking forward to Lent
Easter is going to be so early this year that Ash Wednesday will be on February 6th and then we are into Lent. This year’s Lent course will be called ‘Listening to God’s World’ and there are leaflets about it in the churches. Full details next month.

Five Days with Bishop Bob – June 2009
Bishop Bob, our current Bishop of Crediton, has warmed the hearts and nourished the faith of many people since he arrived in the diocese three years ago. In June next year (2009) he is planning to spend five days among us in Kenn Deanery as part of the celebration of the 1100th anniversary of the Diocese of Exeter. This is not only an opportunity to tell the story of the Church in Devon but also for him to be available to meet, speak, discuss and take questions from any groups or organisations, schools, pubs or clubs, who might like to put on an event or meeting with Bishop Bob as guest speaker. It seems like a long way ahead, but if anyone would like to include him in their programme from 10th-14th June 2009, it would be helpful to hear from you in the next few months. We are hoping to have draft plan in place later in the year. Please contact me by phone (252845) or e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com)

Confirmation Service in the Valley – Sunday 31st August 2008
Bishop Bob has also booked to be with us here in the Teign Valley for a Valley Confirmation Service at the end of August. Bishops do not often come to our village churches so this is a rare opportunity to be confirmed by a Bishop here on our own patch. If you think this might be for you, or would like to know about confirmation and what it is, please get in touch without obligation by phone (252845) or e-mail (rivertide@btinternet.com)

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Christow – To be arranged
Ashton - Friday 25th January at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Dunsford – Wednesday 30th January at 7.45 pm at Bridge House
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 31st January at 7.30 pm at Oakley
Dunchideock – Monday 4th February at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Bridford - Thursday 14th February at 2.30 pm at Bridford Barton
Christow – Wednesday 12th March at 7.45 pm at Station House

From The Registers
Baptisms
November 25th Amy O’Nions (Dunsford)
December 9th Amy Withers (Doddiscombsleigh)
Weddings
December 8th Andrew Lawson and Donna Bickford (Dunchideock)
Funerals
December 4th Jean Hawker (Dunsford)
December 5th Ivy Lucas (Dunsford)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year. Graham Mayer

December

At Christmas time many proud parents and grandparents will find themselves watching the young child or children in their family taking part in a nativity play. Where permission has been granted in accordance with child protection procedures, cameras and camcorders will be recording the event, and there could well be some lumps in the throat and moisture around the eyes as something quite magical unfolds in the church or school hall. Whatever chaos or stressful uncertainties may have been taking place offstage immediately prior to the event – lost props, last minute changes in the casting, a disastrous shortage of safety pins – somehow it all comes together and the impact of the whole is certainly greater than the sum of all its parts.

Children, usually young children, perform but of course it’s really done for the adults. When they get their lines wrong, or mispronounce a key word in the story, it all just adds to the charm of it all. Like at the East London school nativity play where all was going well until the angel appeared and told the little girl playing Mary that she was going to have a baby. “But how can this be,” said Mary, “since I am a Viking?”

At another school, two little girls were heard talking about their roles in the nativity play. “I’m going to be a virgin,” one of them announced smugly. “That’s nothing,” replied the other, “I’m going to be an angel.” With which the first one came back and said: “Well, my mummy says it’s much harder to be a virgin.”

I do not suppose that Matthew and Luke imagined for one moment that their stories about the birth of Jesus would one day be acted out by young children. What we get is usually Luke’s story of the angel visiting Mary, the journey to Bethlehem where the inn was full, the manger and the shepherds. Matthew’s piece about the wise men is then tacked on at the end. We do not often see how Joseph reacted when Mary, the girl he was expecting to marry, was suddenly found to be with child.

It is Matthew who tells us the story about the birth of Jesus from Joseph’s angle. It is Matthew who reminds us that Joseph, under Jewish law, should have broken off his betrothal to Mary, divorced her, and exposed her to public disgrace. Since betrothal was tantamount to marriage, if sexual relations took place with someone else, this was treated as adultery and the usual penalty was death by stoning. Mary’s position was serious indeed.

But Joseph was not so minded. He was a compassionate man and decided that he was going to divorce her quietly. That is until he had a dream in which a messenger from God explained exactly what was going on. The whole experience must have been extraordinarily real because Joseph at once changed his mind. With a total disregard to any scandal he might cause, he took Mary as his wife along with the child.

Many people would want to dismiss the story of the virgin birth – or more precisely the virginal conception – as a miracle too far. Many committed Christians, even a few bishops, would prefer to remain agnostic about this particular story, and it’s quite reasonable to argue that you can put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ without necessarily taking this story literally. And yet there are quite a few miraculous births recorded in the Old Testament – not virgin births, but babies born to either barren or elderly women. So if the power of God was able to perform a little fertility therapy with these ladies, you might think that to do the same again with someone much younger would not be out of the question.

Far more important is what Matthew and Luke clearly intended to convey by telling their story. The mystery and wonder of God taking on human form, however it happened, are powerfully captured in both these stories. No wonder it touches our hearts when we see young children conveying the mystery and wonder to us as they surely will again this Christmas, when they act out the story that lies at the core of the Christian faith.

Getting to Church this Christmas
All our village churches offer a full range of services this Christmas:

• Christingle Services
Dunsford – December 2nd at 10.00 am
Ashton – December 2nd at 4.00 pm
Bridford & Christow – December 2nd at 6.00 pm
Dunchideock – December 9th at 5.00 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – School Service – December 13th at 6.30 pm

• Carol Services
Ashton – Sunday 16th December at 4.00 pm
Christow– Sunday 16th December at 6.00 pm
Dunsford – Sunday December 16th at 6.30 pm
Dunchideock - Sunday 23rd December at 5.00 pm
Doddiscombsleigh – Sunday 23rd December at 5.30 pm
– this year incorporating a Village Christmas Pageant
Bridford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 6.00 pm

• Crib Service
Dunsford – Christmas Eve, 24th December at 4.00 pm

• Midnight Mass
Ashton/Doddiscombsleigh/Dunchideock/Dunsford – Christmas Eve at 11.30 pm

• Christmas Morning Services
Christow – Family Communion at 10.00 am
Dunsford – Family Service at 10.00 am

New Year
There will be a Group Service at Dunsford on Sunday 30th December at 10.00 am.



From the Registers
Baptisms
October 28th Phoebe Elizabeth Venables (Christow)
November 18th Alfie Jack Breading (Doddiscombsleigh)
Funerals
November 1st Barbara Beer (Dunsford)
November 15th Mary Smale (Christow)
We extend out sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answerphone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year.
Graham Mayer

October

Early autumn is the traditional time for Harvest Thanksgivings, but how many of us these days are really conscious of the passing seasons as far as our food is concerned? And in today’s global and pre-packaged marketplace, for most people there is no impulse to celebrate the successful completion of the annual harvest as it used to be when, as the hymn puts it, ‘all was safely gathered in ere the winter storms begin.’ Nevertheless, even if not many of us go out to plough the fields and scatter, for those who do life can be difficult, lonely and worrying even at the best of times. After an unusually wet summer, and with the threat of foot and mouth again causing major disruption to the marketing and transporting of livestock, there’s no doubt that personal livelihoods and the rural economy could feel the effect.

Our Bishop, who is also Chairman of the Church of England's Rural Strategy Group, issued this statement on 12th September when a second outbreak of foot and mouth was confirmed in Surrey. He said: "This is devastating news for Devon farmers. Although the outbreak is in another part of the country, it will still impact heavily on the agricultural industry and community here. Autumn is normally a time of extensive cattle movement. The ban on any movement will hit personal livelihoods and the rural economy. We welcome the prompt action being taken to contain this latest outbreak and eradicate the virus, but look forward also to the announcement of support for those who will be affected. As well as offering the support of our prayers, as Chairman of the Church of England's Rural Strategy Group I will be in touch with organisations such as the ARC Addington Fund who have already provided much needed assistance to farmers during the earlier outbreak."

At our Harvest Thanksgivings, we offer prayers for the farming community, as well as remembering that, in the last resort, all the resources that we enjoy on this earth are a gift of our Creator. It is not that God needs our thanks. It’s more likely that we need to say ‘thank you’ because a grateful heart is often a more contented heart. This is one of the reasons why worshipping God, the principle of creative love that is at the heart of the universe, is good for us. To spend time offering thanks and praise is a beneficial thing to do.

Christian prayer and worship also allow us to get our own sense of failure, guilt and shortcomings sorted out and dealt with, and that is far more healthy than the more usual method of denial and suppression. Praying enables us as well to offer up our concerns and longings, whether these are for ourselves, for people we know or something on a far wider scale. But it is always good to begin by giving thanks and praise. This is what regenerates the soul and recharges the batteries. Offering as much as we know of ourselves to as much as we know of God is all that we can do, and that is all that we need to do.

Special occasions in October

Harvest Thanksgiving Services
As well as celebrating the good things in life at our Harvest Thanksgiving Services, we also focus on those who rarely enjoy all the things that we take so much for granted. As we hear almost daily of people who are suffering in different parts of the world, we also want our Harvest Celebrations to be also about making a generous offering to those who have so little.
Come and join us at
Ashton
Sunday 7th October at 11.30 a.m. followed by Harvest Lunch
Dunsford
Sunday 7th October at 10.00 a.m. for a Family Service
and also at 6.30 p.m. for Harvest Evensong followed by Harvest Supper
Christow
Sunday 14th October at 11.30 a.m. followed by Harvest Lunch at the TVCH
Dunchideock
Sunday 14th October at 6.00 p.m. followed by Harvest Supper

Service of Celebration & Thanksgiving - Doddiscombsleigh Church
– Sunday 21st October at 10.00 am with the Archdeacon of Exeter
The ancient church at Doddiscombsleigh is famous for its medieval stained glass, especially the window of the Seven Sacraments. The cost and task of preserving them falls to the local church and community and this year, with the help of some grants and local giving, we were able to appoint York Glaziers to come and clean, repair and restore the windows during July. To mark this achievement, we are holding a special Celebration and Thanksgiving on Sunday 21st October at 10.00. Our archdeacon, the Ven Penny Driver, has kindly agreed to speak at the service and we look forward to welcoming her once again to the Teign Valley.

Taizé Style Worship – Bridford Church - Sunday 21st October at 6.00 pm
This month we are providing another opportunity to experience worship using music and songs developed by the Taizé Community in France. The songs are short and simple, and very easily learned with very accessible and often lovely melodies. The setting is informal, and between the songs there will be readings, prayers and short periods of silence for reflection. Bridford Church - Sunday 21st October at 6.00 pm. Come along from 5.30 onwards, and there will be a chance to learn some of the songs.

Wrestling with God – Autumn 2007
This is a follow-up from the ‘Voicing Doubts’ series of meetings that we held in the Spring. If you would like to come along on Thursday mornings from 10.30-12.00, please get in touch on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com

Confirming your faith
As I mentioned last month, Bishop Bob has accepted our invitation to conduct a Confirmation Service next year and is able to be with us next year on Sunday 7th September 2008. If you would like to be confirmed, and find out a bit more about it, please get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com for further discussion. Enquiries for youngsters of 11 or more also welcome.

PCC Meetings
A reminder for PCC members of the next meetings:
Dunchideock Monday 8th October at 7.30 pm at The Beeches
Bridford Wednesday 11th October at 2.30 pm at Bridford Barton
Doddicombsleigh Thursday 11th October at 7.30 pm at Oakley
Christow Wednesday 7th November at 7.45 pm at Station House

From The Registers
Baptisms
September 2nd Daisy Grace Barker and Elsie Elvira Patricia Hunt (Dunsford)
September 21st Claude David James (Bridford)
Weddings
September 1st Kieron Rooney and Claire Wainwright (Ashton)
Hywel Lewis and Joanna Gaches (Ashton)

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

September

September is the month that some people see coming with a certain amount of fear and apprehension, all mixed up with the anticipation and excitement of a fresh start. For the young it’s back to school or college, and probably a new class, new teachers, new courses, and maybe having to make new friends. It raises all the hopes that come when we have the chance to make a fresh start but underpinned by a sense of apprehension. For their parents and minders it may be something of a relief to send them off, perhaps in new shoes and clothes, after the longest holiday of the year. For some of those in the later years of life, there may be low season holidays to look forward to. For many people life will just carry on as normal, and for some of those it may feel like just one bloody day after another.

Having a shape and rhythm to our lives, times of ending and beginning, times of working and playing, interspersed with times of celebrating, can make a lot of difference to our health, both physical and mental. For many centuries the Christian calendar provided a rhythm to the year. This was backed up by a story that gave shape to many people’s lives and helped to make sense of it all. There were also all sorts of days of celebration, ‘holy days’ from which, of course, we get the word ‘holidays’.

But that calendar was by no means something totally new. The rhythms, the shape and the celebrations were already there. They were often related to the changing of the seasons, different phases of the natural and agricultural year. Food, fertility, the position of the sun, shortening and lengthening days, death and new life were the sort of themes that determined when they fell. And they were often backed up by stories about more powerful and supernatural beings.

Our lives today, so easily governed by media hype and commercial forces, can be led into celebrations and rhythms that have no supporting story. And without a story, without some kind of belief to give it all meaning, there is likely to be a void, a sense of emptiness that we are so easily tempted to fill with excessive spending and consuming of one kind or another. Much of what passes for celebration today, with the exception of course of personal and family occasions, can feel very empty.

All religions begin with an ‘I believe…’, and it is faith or belief that can make all the difference. It may seem illogical, even primitive, to believe when we live in a highly developed scientific age, when people can achieve all sorts of things. Yet statistics show that some 72% of adult people in this country not only claim to have a faith, but call themselves Christian. Then there are those – a significant number - who follow other faiths. So believing in something, something that cannot be proved logically, rationally and scientifically, is still amazingly popular and widespread.

What we believe may be strong and definite, or it may be uncertain and hesitant. Whichever it is, it deserves to be celebrated. It deserves to be given a higher profile in the way we run and shape our lives. For in the end, when everything else has been stripped from us, what we believe will be all that is left to us. It is when we are not true to what we believe that our lives get misshapen, the values we treasure deep down get eroded. Beliefs need to be fed, nurtured, practised and celebrated. They need to grow so that when they are all we have left, they will be there for us like a rock, not like a fast disappearing patch of sinking sand.

Special occasions in September

New Beginnings - Christow Church – Sunday 23rd September at 10.00 am
As the new academic year gets underway, an opportunity to celebrate and mark new beginnings and fresh starts in our lives. There will be opportunities for young people and children to get involved. So watch out for further information.

Wrestling with God – Autumn 2007 – starting Thursday 20th September
This is a follow-up from the ‘Voicing Doubts’ series of meetings that we held in the Spring. A number of us may find ourselves wrestling with God at times – it might be as a result of life experiences, a hard choice that once confronted us, or it might be because we find it hard to swallow something that we think we are supposed to believe in. No fixed agenda – just a series of meetings to discuss, listen and share starting this autumn on Thursday mornings from 20th September. If you would like to know more please contact me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com

Confirming your faith – join our growing group
Bishop Bob has accepted our invitation to conduct a Confirmation Service next year and is able to be with us next year on Sunday 7th September 2008. Confirmation preparation offers the opportunity to learn and reflect upon the Christian faith before taking this step of considered and conscious commitment. Our growing group meets about once a month. If you would like to join, please get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com for further discussion. Enquiries for youngsters of 11 or more also welcome.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Ashton – Wednesday 12th September at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Dunsford – Wednesday 19th September at 7.45 pm at 9 Brownings Mead

From The Registers
Weddings
August 4th John Rattenbury and Nikki Bennett (Dunsford)
Wedding Blessings
August 18th Duncan and Patricia Mitchell (Doddiscombsleigh)
Funerals
August 22nd Kieron Unwin (Interment at Ashton)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.


Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

August

It’s been a long time since I read Alice In Wonderland, but it’s the sort of book whose stories and characters are so strange that they easily stick in our minds and remain with us throughout our lives. They behave in the way people do when they turn up in our dreams – close enough to reality to be recognizable, but then gradually transformed until the whole situation becomes absurd and totally unreal while remaining fully credible and convincing. Like the baby that turns out to be a pig, the tea party that just gets madder and madder, and the queen who keeps screaming '‘off with her head’. And then there’s the Cheshire Cat in the tree who keeps appearing and disappearing. Alice says to the cat: I wish you wouldn't keep appearing and disappearing so suddenly. You make me feel quite giddy." To which the cat replies: All right, and then for a change does his disappearing act very slowly, beginning with the tip of the tail and ending with the grin, which remained there for some time after the rest of it had gone. Well, thought Alice, I've seen a cat without a grin. But as for a grin without a cat! It's the most curious thing I ever saw in all my life.

If you read the stories of the resurrection appearances, they also have a certain unreal and dreamlike quality about them. Jesus comes and goes in mysterious and unexpected ways, suddenly appearing among them even though the door was locked, or suddenly vanishing as soon as his disciples realise that he is there. While he is there, he is there is a very real and physical way. On one occasion he shows them the marks of the holes in his hands and his side, proving that it really was him.

It just happened that Thomas was not there at the time. So when he heard about it, he wanted to see the print of the nails in Jesus’s hands and the mark of the wound in his side before he would believe. A week later Jesus appeared again and invited Thomas to feel his hands and touch his side. All his doubts vanished. Thomas saw at once that Jesus in his risen form was recognisably the same person whom they had followed, obeyed and worshipped for the past three years. He was without any shadow of doubt their Lord and their God.

We are in a very different place. Unlike the disciples, who were eye-witnesses of these resurrection appearances, we are among those to whom Jesus addresses his final words at the end of this particular story. ‘Have you believed because you have seen me?’ says Jesus to Thomas. ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

This is the kind of faith that Jesus commends throughout the gospels. He has little time for those who are attracted to him by signs and miracles, who follow him around in the hope of seeing yet another sensational healing or exorcism. Jesus invites us to follow him into a place where things are far from certain, to that place where even he felt that God had abandoned him.

There is nothing wrong with having doubts and questions about what we are supposed to believe. Far from it, for without doubts and questions our faith would have no chance of growing and maturing. So doubting Thomas, as he has become called, is there to encourage us in that. He is there to encourage us to be brutally honest about where we might be in terms of what we believe or find hard to believe. We can even pour all our doubts and questions, all our anger and frustrations too, into our praying. Such prayers could upset other people but they won’t upset God. God can take them, just as Jesus was able to take what Thomas said and showed that he could handle it and respond to it.

God does not want us to be stuck in that place where we won’t move on unless we have some tangible proof. God calls us to take the leap of faith, to go with him into the place of uncertainty and to put our entire trust in him. ‘Have you believed because you have seen me?’ says Jesus to Thomas. ‘Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.’

Special occasions in August

Summer Choral Evensong - Sunday 19th August at 6.30 pm – Bridford Church
We are getting together for a summer evening Choral Evensong in the beautiful historic surroundings of Bridford Church. All are welcome from all our villages.
Art Exhibition – Dunsford Church – 24th-27th August
Once again Dunsford Church are hosting their biennial Art Exhibition over the last weekend in August. Well worth going along to have a look.

Looking ahead
New Beginnings - Christow Church – Sunday 23rd September at 10.00 am
As the new academic year gets underway, an opportunity to celebrate and mark new beginnings and fresh starts in our lives. There will be opportunities for young people and children to get involved. So watch out for further information.

Wrestling with God – Autumn 2007 – starting Thursday 20th September
This is a follow-up from the ‘Voicing Doubts’ series of meetings that we held in the Spring. A number of us may find ourselves wrestling with God at times – it might be as a result of life experiences, a hard choice that once confronted us, or it might be because we find it hard to swallow something that we think we are supposed to believe in. No fixed agenda – just a series of meetings to discuss, listen and share starting this autumn on Thursday mornings from 20th September. If you would like to know more please contact me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com

Confirming your faith – join our growing group
Bishop Bob has accepted our invitation to conduct a Confirmation Service next year and is able to be with us on Sunday 7th September 2008. Confirmation preparation offers the opportunity to learn and reflect upon the Christian faith before taking this step of considered and conscious commitment. Our growing group meets about once a month. If you would like to join, please get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com for further discussion. Enquiries for youngsters of 11 or more also welcome.
From The Registers
Baptisms
June 24th Elsie Prothero (Christow)
June 29th Zac and Xanthe Davidson (Ashton)
July 15th Ashton Goulden (Ashton)
Holly Oliver (Bridford)
Weddings
July 7th Andrew Francis and Jane Durnford (Ashton)
July 21st Daniel Wright and Rachel Potts (Christow)
Funerals
June 25th Michael Preece (Burial at Dunchideock)
July 11th Olive Sercombe (Burial at Dunsford)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to the family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

July

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June

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May

They may not be very pretty, and they are often controversial, but the wind farms that we see sprouting up in various parts of Devon and Cornwall are gong to be around for a while. Looking at first sight like an army of space invaders, they silently but powerfully make use of a natural resource in what looks like an environmentally friendly way. They may spoil the view but not as much as cooling towers, and they feel safer than having a nuclear power station around the corner.

The harnessing of natural sources of power and energy goes back to the earliest days of human civilisation. It was the wind that first transported people and goods across the seas. It was wind or water that turned the huge stones used to grind wheat. And it was the discovery of fire that opened the way not only to cooked meat and cosy caves in the wintertime, but also to turning metal into tools, money, weapons and jewellery.

The movement of air, and the power provided by water and fire, have not only been important for advancing human civilisation. They have also been used to express the interaction between the natural and the supernatural, the human and the divine. Our Bible is full of them. We read that Moses experienced God in the form of a burning bush, and God used wind to separate the waters of the Red Sea so that the people of Israel could make their escape from slavery to freedom in the promised land.

In the Acts of the Apostles, St Luke uses the same images of wind and fire to convey the change that overcame the disciples of Jesus after his death and resurrection. Their experience of God was like a wind from heaven that filled the room. It was this wind or spirit - the words in Hebrew, Greek and Latin are the same – that sent them out to proclaim the good news about Jesus to the people that had gathered, the huge crowds drawn to the place by the sound of the wind.

In the same story, we find the fire of God, not as a huge blaze but as tongues of flame, forking out, and resting upon each individual, equipping each one of them with a gift. In this case the gift was the ability to speak in different languages, and to communicate with Jews of different nationalities who lived in Jerusalem at the time.

It’s all very dramatic as you might expect for a major turning point in history such as the launching of the Christian movement. But we still tend to fall into spirit language when we want to talk about our experiences of things beyond the material. We also set about being set on fire, or about an idea or a passion burning within us.

It is not easy to explain many of our experiences without using words like ‘spirit’ and ‘spiritual’. Christians believe that the Spirit is how we experience the love and power of God. For Christians, the Spirit is God, and with our celebrations of Christmas and Easter behind us, this is where our focus will be as we come this month to the yearly festivals of Ascension and Pentecost.


Special occasions in May

Rogation Sunday – 13th May – 10.00 am Ashton/6.30 pm Dunsford
The word ‘rogation’ simply means asking, and it is an ancient tradition on Rogation Sunday to ask for God’s blessing on the crops of the fields and by extension on all that goes on in our village communities. Special services begin in church at Ashton at 10.00 am and at Dunsford at 6.30 pm.
Ascension Day – Thursday 17th May – 7.30 pm Ashton
There will be a Group Eucharist to celebrate Ascension Day at Ashton at 7.30 pm.
Day of Pentecost (Whitsunday) – 27th May – 10.00 Christow and Dunsford
Traditionally the third most important Christian festival after Christmas and Easter in celebration of the Holy Spirit.
Trinity Sunday – 2nd June – 10..00 Doddiscombsleigh

Confirming your faith or voicing your doubts
This month we continue with the two groups, one preparing for Confirmation and the other looking in an open-ended way at what Christians claim to believe. The second group will meet on three Wednesday mornings, starting May 9th at 10.30 am at Glebe House in Higher Ashton, by kind invitation of Anne Goulden.
For those thinking about getting confirmed, please get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com for further discussion.

Archdeacon’s Visitation – Wednesday 16th May
This year we go to Starcross Parish Church – your churchwardens and your Rural Dean will be sworn in. Refreshments will be served from 7.00 pm and the service led by Archdeacon Penny Driver begins at 8.00 pm finishing by 9.00 pm. All are very welcome.

Teign Valley Youth Project
Our two Youth Workers, Vicki Bellingham and Louise Clarke, have now been with us for a year, working at Teign School as well as out in the community at Chudleigh, Kingsteignton and the villages of the Teign Valley. There will be a special service to celebrate the first anniversary of the project on Sunday 20th May at Chudleigh Church at 6.30 pm with Martin Thompson, our new Diocesan Youth Adviser. Please come along and make sure our village churches are well represented.

Thank you
Thank you to all worked very hard to clean, prepare and decorate our churches for the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter. The flower displays and Easter Gardens were beautifully done and helped to create a lovely atmosphere for our Easter celebrations. A special word of thanks for the Lenten Cross at Christow that changes week by week and ends up on Easter Sunday covered in flowers.



PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Ashton – Friday 11th May at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Dunsford – Wednesday 23rd May at 7.45 pm at Bridge House
Bridford - Thursday 24th May at 2.30 pm at Bridford Barton

From The Registers
Weddings
March 24th Dan Eatherley and Clair Rust (Christow)
Funerals
March 20th Doreen Clark at Exeter Crematorium (Christow)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

April

This month we shall see many of our English parish churches flying the St George’s Flag, the ancient symbol of a red cross on a white background, worn for centuries long ago by English soldiers fighting for king and country. More recently, as we know, it has been revived as a battle emblem in national struggles to win international sporting competitions, and in particular the World Cup.

As saints go, St George is pretty popular and not just our national hero. If we are to believe the BBC Religious Education web page, he is also patron saint of many other countries, including Bavaria, Catalonia, Georgia, Greece, Lithuania, Palestine and Portugal, and of the cities of Moscow, Istanbul, Genoa and Venice (second to St Mark). On top of that, he is the patron saint of soldiers, cavalry and chivalry; of farmers and field workers, boy scouts and butchers; of horses, riders and saddlers; and of sufferers from leprosy, plague and syphilis; and, of course, archers - remember Agincourt?

So whenever we see the flag on cars, vans, faces, tee-shirts and bedroom windows, we must understand the centuries-old tradition from which it derives, and the power that it still has to generate emotion, pride and the determination to win on the battle fields of today’s sporting world. In the days when churches were at the heart of the local community, and usually the highest building in the parish, it’s not hard to guess why the national flag was flown to mark special days of celebration, not only for St George’s Day on April 23rd, but on all high days and holidays throughout the year.

At Easter, the red cross, or any cross for that matter, takes on an extra significance. In recent months, especially with the case of the defiant BA airport worker, we have been reminded of the cross as a symbol of religious faith that is as important to some Christians as head coverings are to Muslims. Crosses are particularly noticeable as a way of marking graves, especially in the huge war cemeteries that you see in parts of France. In some countries, crosses still stand by crossroads, especially in rural areas, not only to mark the junction, but to reassure nervous travellers as they passed by.

Some of these wayside crosses actually carry a carving of the body of the crucified Jesus. Even if it just a plain cross, it still signifies that this is where Jesus died for us. This is where Jesus suffered one of the most painful and long-drawn out methods of execution ever devised even though he did nothing to deserve it, except tell people about the kingdom of God and challenge the false, hypocritical or simply misguided religious teachers of his day.

The cross is where we see through the eyes of faith that Jesus died for us. Those four simple words can be understood in many different ways. If we are tormented by guilt at what we have done and said in the course of our lives, they tell us that Jesus died instead of us, bearing the punishment that we really deserve. If we feel enslaved by thoughts, behaviour or attitudes that we just cannot break free of, as if we were held captive by them, then they tell us that Jesus has paid the ransom for our freedom. If we feel overwhelmed by a sense of despair, of life having no meaning or a sense that evil seems to rule the world, then the events of Easter tell us that the powers of darkness do not have the last word. The cross was a place of victory, not defeat.

But without the eyes of faith, the cross can have no meaning at all. In the eyes of those who see only what is needed to succeed in this world, its message will be one of utter foolishness. But the cross of Christ, and the faith that has grown from it, has had the power to change the world. This is why Christians, in St Paul’s words, want to boast of the cross. This is why Christians want to show the cross and not hide it.

Special occasions in April

Church Services for Holy Week and Easter
Palm Sunday – 1st April
Palm Crosses will be blessed and given out at all services on Palm Sunday:
Bridford at 8.30 am – Holy Communion - BCP
Doddiscombsleigh at 10.00 am – Modern Communion Service
Dunsford at 10.00 am – Family Service
Christow at 6.00 pm. – Palm Sunday Service
Holy Wednesday – 4th April
Midweek Communion Service – 11.00 am at Christow
Maundy Thursday – 5th April
Commemoration of the Last Supper – Group Eucharist at Dunsford at 7.30 pm
Good Friday – 6th April
Celebration of the Lord’s Passion - Group Service at Dunsford at 10.00 am
Easter Day – 8th April
Please note the times of our Easter Sunday Services
Early morning Holy Communion (BCP) - Christow at 8.00 am
Mid-morning Easter Services with Communion:
Ashton - 9.30 am / Bridford - 10.00 am / Christow – 11.00 am

Teign Valley Youth Project
Our two Youth Workers, Vicki Bellingham and Louise Clarke, have now been with us for a year, working at Teign School as well as out in the community at Chudleigh, Kingsteignton and the villages of the Teign Valley. There will be a special service to celebrate the first anniversary of the project on Sunday 20th May at Chudleigh Church at 6.30 pm with Martin Thompson, our new Diocesan Youth Adviser. Please come along and make sure our village churches are well represented.

Annual Church Meetings
The dates for the Annual Church Meetings, to which all are welcome, are as follows:
Ashton Monday 23rd April at 2.30 pm in the Village Hall
Bridford Wednesday 28th March at 2.30 pm in Church
Christow Thursday 26th April at 7.45 pm in Church
Doddiscombsleigh Thursday 29th March at 7.30 pm in Church
Dunchideock Monday 23rd April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall
Dunsford Wednesday 11th April at 7.30 pm in Church
All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches.

From The Registers
Funerals
March 7th Caroline Wright (Ashton/Christow)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Graham Mayer

March

If your travels have ever taken you to the French lakeside town of Annecy, you may have explored the network of canals and narrow streets that they like to call, rather pretentiously, their Little Venice. When we were there a few years ago, we found ourselves drawn back again and again in order to treat ourselves at a certain creperie where they offered the most amazing variety of jams and fillings.

They had mulberry, blueberry, blackberry, gooseberry, raspberry, whortleberry strawberry and huckleberry. Mango, peach, pear and damson, green plum, red plum, rhubarb, banana, apricot, pineapple, star apple, crab apple and just apple. Then there was red currant, blackcurrant, passion fruit, kiwi fruit, chestnut, hazel nut, mandarin, lemon and lime. OK, I’m exaggerating a bit, but I can just imagine Ronnie Barker standing at the counter reciting a list like that.

Somehow our crisper English pancake, delicious as it is with lemon juice and sugar, is not quite the same. Nevertheless they are popular, and there are still quite a few children who will not allow Shrove Tuesday to go by without demanding their annual pancake treat. Schools hold pancake races and the supermarkets had their special displays to boost the sales of lemon juice and sugar.

All of that is pretty mild with what goes on in many Catholic countries. The famous Mardi Gras celebrations – literally fat Tuesday – were instituted, not just to mop up any left over eggs, butter, flour and sugar in the form of pancakes, but to give people one last fling before the austerities of Lent began. In many parts of America and the Caribbean, that has developed into such an amazing carnival that they probably need the next forty days to recover.

When you read this we shall be well into the season of Lent. The forty days that stretch from Ash Wednesday to Easter Day is based on the time that Jesus spent in the wilderness, without any food passing his lips. It is described by Matthew, Mark and Luke as a time of testing. The challenges that faced him were all about setting his priorities. Was he going to use his gifts and power to satisfy his own needs and desires? Or was he going to dedicate them to the service of God, and trust that God would supply all his bare necessities?

Jesus had to make up his mind whether to worship the devil – the personification of all worldly desires and ambitions – or to serve God. Then, having made that choice, he had to learn that God’s way may not often make a lot of sense from a human point of view. To do something dramatic and sensational may sound tempting, but in the end he came to the conclusion that, in this life, God’s way and God’s timing are what really matter.

The space and the freedom to make such life choices are not easily available to many people. If we are in employment, we are under pressure to conform to expectations or to get out. If we are among people who do not share our beliefs, or our values and priorities, it can be tough to make a stand. The way Jesus walked led him to the cross because there was no compromise where he was concerned, but people with the calling or the courage to live like that are few and far between.

Most of us muddle on with a bit of give and a bit of take. When we read the gospel stories, we see how Jesus ministered to ordinary people like us at critical moments with compassion, healing and deliverance. Then he let them go their way to work it out in the ongoing pattern of their lives. Only a few were called and chosen to leave everything behind. Only a few were given authority to follow him in a special way.

Yet those ordinary lives touched by Jesus could never have been the same again. To experience the touch of Jesus, or to hand yourself over to him in faith and prayer, must mean a change. John, in his gospel, calls it a new birth. Paul, in the epistles, describes such a person as a new creation. Having Jesus at the centre, and making the effort to be nurtured by his words and actions, will lead to new and exciting discoveries. In the context of hot dry Palestine, it was compared to finding a spring of refreshing water that will never run dry, a source of food such that you will never be hungry again. For us, it might be better to imagine it like a bank account that will never get overdrawn, a source of energy that will be always renewable. Whatever image you prefer, what it means is that trusting in Jesus will see you through, even to infinity and beyond!

Confirming your faith or voicing your doubts
About a dozen people came to our first three discussions on ‘Voicing Your Doubts’ where we considered questions about ‘Why Jesus?’ and ‘Love and forgiveness’. We are planning three more in May, starting on Wednesday 9th May at 10.30 am. In addition three adults have started meeting separately to prepare for Confirmation. If you would like to join either of these groups, please get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com.

Special events during March
Mothering Sunday – Sunday 18th March at 10.00 am – Ashton / Dunsford
This year Mothering Sunday falls on 18th March and there will be special Mothering Sunday Services at Ashton and Dunsford Churches at 10.00 am.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Dunsford – Wednesday 7th March at 7.45 pm at 9 Brownings Mead
Christow – Thursday 15th March at 7.45 pm at Court Barton

Annual Church Meetings
All parishioners are invited to attend our Annual Church Meetings:
Ashton Monday 23rd April at 2.30 pm in the Village Hall
Bridford Wednesday 28th March at 2.30 pm in Church
Christow Thursday 26th April at 7.45 pm in Church
Doddiscombsleigh Thursday 29th March at 7.30 pm in Church
Dunchideock Monday 23rd April at 7.30 pm in the Village Hall
Dunsford Wednesday 11th April at 7.30 pm in Church
All nominations for Churchwardens and PCC members should be made before the meetings using lists at the back of our churches.

Church Electoral Roll
Whenever we mention the Electoral Roll, some people think we are talking about the Electoral Register which is all about voting in national and local elections. The Church Electoral Roll has nothing to do with that. It is a list of church members. Anyone who comes to church, who is baptised and who lives in one of the villages, is eligible to join the list. Being on the Electoral Roll gives you the right to vote at Annual Meetings, to elect or to be elected on to the Church Council. Every six years, to keep things up to date, the list is scrapped and a new list is drawn up. This is happening this year so, in order to make sure your name is on the list, get hold of a form from your village church and return it before the date of the Annual Meeting.

How to get in touch
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 am (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Alternatively send an e-mail to me at rivertide@btinternet.com.

February

One of the pleasures that sometimes comes at this time of year is to wake up one morning to a strange, almost eerie silence and discover that it has been snowing overnight. There’s no traffic and everything is covered with a pristine white blanket. If you venture out into the garden, you may have the joy of being the first to break the surface and create a trail of footprints across your new lawn of pure virgin snow.

As the day progresses and road movement becomes possible, you might go up to the moors where it will lay thicker and longer. You may still find virgin patches on which to leave your leather or rubber footprint. But as hundreds of others will no doubt be up there with you, there will be so many footprints that you will not be able to distinguish yours from all the others in the general slush into which the once so beautiful layer has quickly degenerated.

When I was teaching in the West Indies several years ago, it was quite difficult to explain to the students what snow was like. After a year or more in a perpetually tropical climate, I actually found myself longing for the experience of a crisp cold winter’s day. Are we heading for a time when we shall find it hard to explain to future generations what snow was like? Especially serious snow rather than the odd sprinkling we tend to get these days – serious snow that fills the country lanes to a depth of ten feet and would quickly bury a parked bus.

Much of the talk these days is not about footprints in the snow, but about carbon footprints. We may find our street lighting gets dimmed or turned off, and the lights on road signs becoming more subdued, so that here in Devon we can reduce the size of our carbon footprint. Burn less, use less, waste less is the message that we are hearing again and again. It’s advice that must clearly be in our own interest – not to mention the interests of our children and grandchildren. If the current forecasts for climate change prove to be right and the trends that we are already experiencing stay with us, it would be foolish not to try and avoid the disaster.

Though sometimes it feels that our small individual efforts are not going to make that much difference. Our national contribution to global warming is reckoned to be in the region of 2%. So, while America goes on guzzling as if there were no tomorrow, and places like Russia, China and India are busy spewing out emissions willy-nilly as their economies expand and their life styles become more like ours, what difference can you and I possibly make?

But then we might think the same about other kinds of marks that we make on life during our allotted time here on earth. The life I lead as an individual may seem quite insignificant on the grand scale of things, and yet it’s surprising how wide the ripples may run, and how far into the future the impact may be felt of a choice that I make, or an action that I pursue. In some cultures, the individual is expendable, but it has always been the belief in the Christian tradition that every single person is of infinite value. No person is an island, as John Donne might have said in our time.

This finds expression in those sayings repeated by Jesus that every single hair of our head has been counted, that no single sparrow falls to the ground that is not known to our heavenly Father. It is consistent with what we read in the psalms and prophets of God knowing us even before we are formed in the womb, knowing when we sit down and when we rise up, and knowing all the secret thoughts of our hearts.

So it is that in our national culture, which is still saturated with Christian and Biblical values, we care about individuals. We do not always succeed, but it is our ideal, and we express it in our striving for welfare, justice, equal rights and opportunities. We recognise that our society is made up of individuals who matter. My footprint and its contribution to the messy sludge after a snowfall on Dartmoor matters just as much as anyone else’s and all our carbon footprints are together part of what appears to be making that snow harder to find.

Confirming your faith or voicing your doubts
Our two groups have now started meeting. If you would like to join – either the one for those who would like to get confirmed, or the other looking more generally at questions of faith – please get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com.

Special events during February
Candle Service - Sunday 4th February
Ashton Church at 4.00 pm / Christow Church at 6.00 pm
This yearly event, held at the time of the ancient Festival of Light or Candlemas, is an opportunity for us all to recall and celebrate the time we were baptised or confirmed. It is an all-age occasion and all ages are invited. For parents who in recent years have brought children to church to be baptised, it is a particular chance to follow up that happy occasion and keep the links that you made for them with the church you at that time. At this Candle Service, we will light candles – you may wish to bring along your baptism candle – and also gather round the water in the font. It will last about 40 minutes, and afterwards there will be drinks and cakes for everyone

Evening with Bishop Bob – Thursday 15th February at 7.30 pm
Bishop Bob, our current Bishop of Crediton, has won the hearts and stimulated the minds of many people by his straightforward but perceptive teaching applying the words of familiar Bible stories to the matters facing us in our daily lives. Together with Mark Rylands, Bishop Bob is coming to our deanery area to offer an evening of celebration, worship and teaching on Thursday 15th February at Dawlish Community College. Not to be missed!

Pancake Sunday – Bridford - 18th February at 10.00 am
A short informal and child-friendly service in church followed by pancakes and drinks in the Village Hall. Everyone is welcome from any of the villages.


Ash Wednesday – 21st February at 7.30 pm
This year’s Ash Wednesday service will be conducted by Archdeacon Penny Driver at Dunchideock at 7.30 pm in the evening.

Lent Activities
The season of Lent begins on 21st February this year, and covers the six week period leading up to Easter. There will be Christian Aid lunches in Dunsford, and this year’s Lent Course will offer an opportunity to revisit some of the Just 10 presentations by J John on the Ten Commandments. The first meeting is at Court Barton on Wednesday 28th February at 7.30 pm. All are welcome – for further details please get in touch with me - details below.

PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Bridford - Wednesday 7th February at 2.30 pm at Bridford Barton
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 8th February at 7.30 pm at Oakley

Youth Project in the Valley – Help needed
Vicki and Louise are now working on two ideas to extend the Youth Project into the villages of the Teign Valley. The Youth Bus will be coming on Monday nights and a monthly Café is planned for Saturday nights. They need items like sports and games equipment, games consoles, and also volunteers to help with either of these. If you think you might have time or equipment to offer, please get in touch with me - details below.

From The Registers
Funerals
January 8th Kenneth Cole (Dunchideock)
January 19th Leslie Ouseley (Dunchideock)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

How to get in touch
The best time to contact me by phone (01647 252845) is normally from 10.00-11.00 am (except on Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can. Alternatively send an e-mail to me at rivertide@btinternet.com.
Graham Mayer

January

It is quite a long time since I decided that my fair ride days were more or less over. I still enjoy the dodgems and I don’t mind getting soaked on a wood flume, but you won’t get me on the waltzer or the paratrooper or anything else that tries to push you to infinity and beyond, separating you from stomach and brain in the process.

I still remember my first experience of a roller coaster at the age of eight on cub camp near Southsea. The long slow almost vertical climb, then suspended for a moment in open space before all hell breaks loose and you hurtle down and round, and round and down until, before you know what’s happened, you’re back where you started.

Each new year is getting to feel like a roller coaster ride these days. It doesn’t matter whether you’re twenty-nine or eighty-nine, many people find life just hurtling by, and months already coming to an end when it feels they have only just begun. There’s so much to stimulate and entertain us, so much instant news and so many views being thrust upon us from all over the world. So much to experience, so much to do, that many of us find ourselves totally engaged with someone or something from morning to night. Time slips through our fingers. Before we know where we are, another year has gone by and we are back where we started.

It may not be everyone’s experience, but it is a common experience. And while each year takes us round full circle, each year is also another step on a linear journey. As we look back, we see where our journey began. Conscious memory rarely takes us back earlier than the age of three or four. Then there are those significant moments that mark the stages along the way to where we are now. We also know that for all of us one day our journey through life will come to its end.

Making sense of it is not always easy. Having a sense of direction or purpose as we travel on is something that can elude us at times. What’s it all about? What does my life mean? What does it contribute to the whole pattern of human existence?

Whenever I drive past Stonehenge on the A303, or stumble across a bronze age hut circle on Dartmoor, I often wonder about the people, men, women and children, who were alive in those days. Comparing their lives with ours immediately gives a huge sense of a journey that has been travelled. Even comparing our lives with those of our grandparents shows how fast and how far we have moved on.

So faith in human progress may provide some sense of purpose and direction. At the same time it seems abundantly clear that scientific and technological progress do not provide all the answers. More and more people nowadays are feeling the need for a faith in something more transcendent. Religion is alive and well. Churches are once again beginning to fill. The question facing us in the spiritual marketplace is which one to choose. Which one can I trust? Which one will see me through? Which one will satisfy me at the deepest level, like a spring that never stops flowing? Which one will show me the way, reveal the truth and give me life in all its fullness as the circle turns and year succeeds to year?
Confirming your faith or voicing your doubts
Following from my invitation in last month’s magazine to join a small informal group to look at what Christians claim to believe, more people have been in touch. Two groups will be meeting this month - one for those who would like to get confirmed, the other looking more generally at questions of faith. If you would like to join either group, it’s still not too late. Just get in touch with me on (01647) 252845 or e-mail rivertide@btinternet.com.

Looking back to Christmas
You may read this before Christmas is over, but thank you to those who have worked hard to prepare and decorate our churches for the Christmas services – with trees, flowers, candles, cribs and everything else that combines to provide a seasonal atmosphere for our worship. Thank you also to who have played, read or provided any other special input into our Christingle and Carol Services. At a busy time of year, all this extra work and time that is given is much appreciated. Thank you also to our Bell Ringers – not just at Christmas – but for their time and commitment throughout the year that are appreciated by so many.

New Year’s Eve – Sunday 31st December
There will be a Group Eucharist at Dunsford at 10.00 am

King for a Day - Sunday 7th January
Watch out for the special Epiphany event at Christow Church on Sunday 7th January at 10.00 am. This is for all ages so please bring your children along.

Candle Service - Sunday 4th February
Ashton Church at 4.00 pm / Christow Church at 6.00 pm
This yearly event, held at the time of the ancient Festival of Light or Candlemas, is an opportunity for us all to recall and celebrate the time we were baptised or confirmed. It is an all-age occasion and all ages are invited. For parents who in recent years have brought children to church to be baptised, it is a particular chance to follow up that happy occasion and keep the links that you made for them with the church you at that time. At this Candle Service, we will light candles – you may wish to bring along your baptism candle – and also gather round the water in the font. It will last about 40 minutes, and afterwards there will be drinks and cakes for everyone

Evening with Bishop Bob – Thursday 15th February
Bishop Bob, our current Bishop of Crediton, has won the hearts and stimulated the minds of many people by his straightforward but perceptive teaching applying the words of familiar Bible stories to the matters facing us in our daily lives. Together with Mark Rylands, Bishop Bob is coming to our deanery area to offer an evening of celebration, worship and teaching on Thursday 15th February at Dawlish Community College. Put it in your diaries or on your calendars. Invite friends or neighbours. It’ll certainly be worth going to and everyone – not just church members – will be very welcome.
PCC Meetings
PCC members are reminded of their meetings as follows:
Christow – To be arranged
Ashton - Friday 26th January at 2.30 pm at George Teign Barton
Dunchideock – Monday 29th January at The Beeches
Bridford - Wednesday 7th February at 2.30 pm at Bridford Barton
Doddiscombsleigh – Thursday 8th February at 7.30 pm at Oakley
Treasurers and Churchwardens are also invited to the special meeting of Deanery Synod on Thursday 11th January at 7.30 pm at Exminster Church for a presentation of an alternative proposal for assessing Common Fund..

11-18? Watch this space
The Youth Bus is coming to Christow soon…

From The Registers
Funerals
November 30th John Hulme (Christow)
We extend our sympathy and prayers to family and friends of those who have recently died.

Rectory Hours
The best time to contact me is normally from 10.00-11.00 am in the morning, (except Tuesdays, my day-off, unless it is a matter of great urgency) but the answer phone is available at all times to receive messages and I will get back to you as soon as I can.
Finally, Jackie, Stuart, Edward and I wish you all a very joyful Christmas and a happy and peaceful New Year. Graham Mayer