Letter from Stephen Brian

Dear Reader

St Paul was a lot more generous with the attribution of sainthood than most of us are these days.  He addressed his letters to the saints at Philippi or the saints at Colossae, or in the case of the ‘Letter to Ephesians’, any saint who happened to be reading! To Paul, anyone who was a follower of Christ was a saint, and that was that.  Indeed, in the same spirit I should really address this letter to the saints at the eight churches of the Mid-Loes Benefice-elect (which is one better than John the Divine - see Rev 1v4!)

Indeed, we are all saints, albeit with a lower-case ‘s’.  We have that in common with the millions of faithful Christian disciples who have gone before us down the generations, and whom we remember in the season of ‘All Saints’ at the beginning of November.

It is an appropriate exercise - and one I find helpful - to reflect for a few moments on the particular saints who have been influential, or indeed instrumental in one’s own spiritual pilgrimage.  How did you get to be where you are now?  How was your faith first stirred?  Who set you on the path you’re now one, and perhaps have been on for many years?  Was it a parent?  A Sunday school teacher?  A youth worker?  An aunt?  A minister?  A friend?  I suspect that most of us can think back to someone for whom we would like to give thanks to God.  I can certainly remember some key individuals who taught me at Sunday school and Bible class, who ran the youth group and made my early years fun, and who sought to inspire in me the same faith that they had found.  They did all that for me and for many others for no other reason than the joy of sharing what they had found to be true in their own lives.

See if you can bring to mind a few individuals, then give thanks to God for them, and finally pray that you may be a similar source of light for others.

With best wishes

Stephen Brian

Letter from Gill Lee

I’m sure you won’t have failed to notice that it’s firework time again.  One of the differences I found when I moved from the country to London eleven years ago, was that the firework season is much longer in London.  With firework shops seemingly around every corner, from late September until after the New Year festivities we were treated to a nightly performance of pyrotechnics, reminiscent I’m sure, for people only slightly older than myself, of the dark days of the Blitz.  “Remember, remember the 5th of November” seemed rather superfluous – how could we possibly overlook it? 

Is it just my age, or are fireworks getting progressively more powerful and noisy?  I think Guy Fawkes would have been pleased to get his hands on a fraction of the explosives that are detonated in his memory every year.  At one memorable birthday celebration some of the younger members of my family had a spectacular lesson in the dangers of misusing fireworks and failing to follow the instructions on the box.  They learned the hard way that when it says “attach securely to a firm base before lighting” it doesn’t mean “stand it on wet grass and hope for the best!”.  Their enthusiasm for fireworks was at least temporarily dimmed by the experience of running for their lives with rockets exploding all around them. 

The principle “If you play with fire you will get burned” applies as much to the spiritual as to the physical world.  As Christians we ignore the Maker’s Instructions at the peril of far more than merely our physical well-being.  Why then do so many of us who call ourselves Christians believe that it is nothing more than harmless fun to read our horoscopes in the daily paper, visit fortune tellers on day trips to the seaside, or allow superstitious practices to influence our decisions, our lives and our church? 

We are surrounded by a culture which encourages us to dabble in areas of the supernatural which the God who made us and loves us warns us not to explore.  Scripture teaches, and experience reinforces for us the reality of the spiritual dimension to our lives, and the dangers we run when we don’t follow our Maker’s instructions. 

It is as foolish to play at being Christians, as it is to play with fireworks, and the consequences are far more deadly.  Paul’s advice to us is timeless: “Don’t become so well adjusted to your culture that you fit in without even thinking.  Instead, fix your attention on God.  You’ll be changed from the inside out” (Rom.  12:2 Message).

Have a happy and safe Bonfire night!

Gill Lee