#Meltham Parish Churches are now open for worship. You can join us in church or online. All welcome!
9:30am – St Bartholomew’s – Meltham (can be joined via YouTube)
9:30am – St James’ – Meltham Mills
11:15am – St Mary’s – Wilshaw (can be joined via Zoom from 11am)
11:15am – Christ Church – Helme
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/jIK08LAzlJ8
Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89541841029?pwd=TFBrWVFtYlZiK25QOXRoZUliZmF6UT09
Welcome to the May edition of the #Meltham Parish magazine. Thank you
to all those who have contributed to our new feature on Christian music. We hope you enjoy reading about how music impacts different people for different reasons. Pam tells us how she remembers getting a glimpse of Prince Philip and also looking forward to seeing her family again. Enjoy learning about how St Mary’s was originally decorated before the redecoration in the 1930’s – it really is an eye opener.
Finally, ‘Thank you’ to John Steel photography who have contributed the photos on the front page of St Bart’s and the back page of St James’ (if you look hard you might even be able to see Rev John.)
Hello Everyone
Prayer as the way into our relationship with God.
As we move towards Pentecost we need the comfort only Jesus can give to the world especially during the trials of the pandemic that we find ourselves in. The passage I have chosen helps us focus our attention on the relationship Jesus has with His Father. The relationship also that Jesus had with His Disciples. As we take time to meditate on this scripture ask the Holy Spirit to teach us how to communicate with God the Father. Ask for the freedom to be open simply to chat with God as you would to someone who you know as a close friend.
John 14 New International Version
Jesus Comforts His Disciples
14 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God believe also in me. 2 My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. 4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”
Jesus the Way to the Father
5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”6 Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.”
8 Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us.” 9 Jesus answered: “Don’t you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. 11 Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves. 12 Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. 13 And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
Jesus Promises the Holy Spirit
15 “If you love me, keep my commands. 16 And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever— 17 the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. 18 I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you. 19 Before long, the world will not see me anymore, but you will see me. Because I live, you also will live. 20 On that day you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you. 21 Whoever has my commands and keeps them is the one who loves me. The one who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love them and show myself to them.”
22 Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?”
23 Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. 24 Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me.
25 “All this I have spoken while still with you. 26 But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. 27 Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
28 “You heard me say, ‘I am going away and I am coming back to you.’ If you loved me, you would be glad that I am going to the Father, for the Father is greater than I. 29 I have told you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe.
Written August 28, 2011 by Christine Jerrett
You are the source of our life. You have given us a wonderful world and permeated it through and through with your grace and your love.
You have promised that you will give us your Spirit, to be with us as we journey through this life.
Yet, we confess the many times when our eyes can’t see you, can’t take you in, can’t comprehend how you can be at work in pain and disappointment and sorrow.
We need your Spirit to lift our sights to your wide horizons.
Teach us to pray with such openness to your Spirit that you make yourself plain to us.
Bring us to that place where we are willing to place our lives in your keeping, to submit to your life-changing love, and to move with you into your large open spaces of salvation.
We ask these things in Jesus’ name, our light and our salvation, who lives and reigns with the Father and the Spirit in the bright glory of the holy Trinity, forever and ever. Amen.
Time for own prayers ———Lord’s Prayer
KEEP SAFE ….KEEP PRAYING……Peter
Here are the zoom links for the next 6 weeks with the service information.
Apr 25, 2021 11:00 AM – Holy Communion – Rev Judy
May 2, 2021 11:00 AM – Service of the Word – Jacqueline
May 9, 2021 11:00 AM – Holy Communion – Rev John
May 16, 2021 11:00 AM – Service of the Word – Rev John
May 23, 2021 11:00 AM – Holy Communion – Rev Judy
May 30, 2021 11:00 AM – Service of the Word – Rev John/Jacqueline
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89541841029?pwd=TFBrWVFtYlZiK25QOXRoZUliZmF6UT09
Meeting ID: 895 4184 1029
Passcode: 601850
#Meltham Parish Churches are now open for worship. You can join us in church or online.
9:30am – St Bartholomew’s – Meltham (can be joined via YouTube)
9:30am – St James’ – Meltham Mills
11:15am – St Mary’s – Wilshaw (can be joined via Zoom)
11:15am – Christ Church – Helme
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/msp19v2ZUFo
Zoom link: (currently not available)
Hello Everyone,
LAST OF LENT COURSE
You were invited to share with Christine and I and follow “Lenten Reflections on thirteen Lesser reported followers of Jesus” We chose Seven out of the Thirteen to follow leaving six. So today we would like finish with the stories of just two of the six of Rosemary Powers insights of those who were in the background of the Passion of Jesus. www. Ionabook.com
Mary of Magdala & Joseph of Arimathea appear as witnesses in all four Gospels In Joseph’s case it was because he gained Jesus’ body from Pilate and buried it. He comes in at the end with this public gesture, in John’s Gospel accompanied by Nicodemus with their spices. Legends grew around Joseph of Arimathea, including the story of the Glastonbury Thorn, planted by him in England.
Joseph of Arimathea like Caiaphas had followed the impact of Jesus’ teaching, His healing, and His insistence that some things were the fulfilment of the law, not the opposite. He belonged to the Council, the Sanhedrin, that Caiaphas headed. He was a Pharisee who believed in the Resurrection, which Caiaphas and the majority as Sadducees did not. What was it in Jesus’ preaching on love in this life, and a heart for the core of the Law, delight in life, fullness for all, that made one eager to have Jesus removed, yet this Joseph was a follower, though a fearful, secret one until the end? Was it Jesus’ gift of telling stories with laughter and depth and warnings to the wealthy, his being an outsider who had learnt his skills by another path, his spiritual depth? Joseph of Arimathea was a wise man who was a quiet convert who demonstrated his love of Jesus, respect towards the disciples and all followers of Jesus.
So we now we hear the story from the lips of Mary of Magdala. ‘He came to my lakeside town and looked at me. Me, the turbulent, unmanageable, frustrated one, felt all the acceptance I’d never met till then. At last my gifts had a place, and my faith was not in vain. I followed him on the road. Me, the clever, emotional one, with Joanna to make us prudent, Susanna to remind us of stories, and Salome to keep us respectable. Seven demons released from me as I was given my right to my gifts! He knew the years of suppression, the infantile roles with no place for my soul. And he released me. There were others with other gifts, better gifts. I heard of the Gentile woman who mouthed him, laughed with him, got what she wanted from him; the woman who had to draw water at midday, who argued with him; and little Mary from Bethany who saw further than any of us, all the way to the cross.
‘Be a good Jew,’ he told me, ‘use your gifts to the utmost. God gave women gifts as good as men’s. Take yours and use them, fill the world with love and witness. You’ll be crucified too. They’ll take your name from you, mock you and make you small in the eyes of the world. You’ll be rolled into one with prostitutes and madwomen. But not in my eyes.’ He said: ‘Come follow me.’ ‘I was there with him, as close as we could get, as he rolled in torment, hearing him when he could speak, seeing how he gave, even at the end. I saw him die. I heard the officer take heed of his goodness. I saw other hanged men dispatched from their misery at last, to keep the Sabbath pure. Then we buried him. Hastily but decently, honouring the body of the best of Jews, who hung accursed on a tree and to us was the heart of love, and our hope and light. All extinguished.
We asked why God had let this be done. And how do we live out his teaching when this was done to him by his world? Have we courage enough for the cold years ahead? Among such a mix of
people with conflicting claims and threnodies? (threnody is a wailing ode, song, hymn or poem ) We were the witnesses. When two or three are gathered in my name. But what had we witnessed? How the bravest can die well? We kept and wept the Sabbath, the coldest Sabbath, recalling all he had taught of acceptance, freedom, welcome into the heart of the Creator. We were left clinging to bare, chilly faith of the mind alone where the spirit lay buried in the tomb. Love casts out fear, we knew. Those days had not prepared us for hope. We went in the dark to evade danger where we could. Like him, we stepped aside where needful. The tomb lay open, robbed.
We were dismayed, afraid of the new message. Then coming to meet us, where we were, stretching our hearts, came the story. ‘Do not be afraid. Peace I give you, my peace I bequeath you. Go, tell the others. Share the good news. I will be with you wherever you go, till the end of time.’
‘I was there, the leader, my demons dissolved in the sunrise. His choice of witness and apostle to the Twelve. The story we told was no cold faith. It went to soldiers, slaves, and struggling folk, in the courts of the rich and them at home comfortable. We talked of hope, of people power that can change the world, and how Spirit-filled in common life we could confront all trials. As silently, as certainly as Jesus.’
We give thanks …
For the risen Christ, casting out all fear, bringing new life on the first day of the week. For the gifts that God has given, to people of every creed and colour and people and nation, to male and female, rich and poor. For those who have the courage of leadership throughout the world, who seek to make it a place where all can exercise the fullness of their humanity.
We pray …
For those whose lives are limited by the actions of others, who are held in the grip of poverty, debt, illness, and the contempt of others. For those who grieve, for their loved ones who have died, for the loss of fullness in their own lives. For those who have given up, through addiction, overwork, bitterness, that they may hear rumours of hope and find it blossom in their lives. For the sadness of our world, with wars and rumours of war, for the tomb of the hidden wars and its scars globally physically, mentally and spiritually. Be among all who seek to move to find freedom and fullness. That Easter may come in our lives and the life of our common world.
Time for own prayers ———Lord’s Prayer
KEEP SAFE ….KEEP PRAYING……Peter
#Meltham Parish Churches are now open for worship. Join us in church or online.
9:30am – St Bartholomew’s – Meltham (can be joined via YouTube)
9:30am – St James’ – Meltham Mills
11:15am – St Mary’s – Wilshaw (can be joined via Zoom)
11:15am – Christ Church – Helme
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/C2Vro9mxHxM
Zoom link: (currently not available)
Wednesday mornings 10.30-11am – St Bartholomew’s, spoken BCP H service of Holy Communion
Hello Everyone
A prayer for the time after Easter.
Written by Roddy Cowie Member of Iona Community.
A prayer worthy of our attention throughout Eastertide in
preparation for Pentecost when Hope bursts forth in Freedom.
Lord of the Upper Room
Lord Jesus, today we remember that you came to the disciples when they were hiding in the upper room, afraid to face the world.
We pray for those who lock themselves away, afraid to face the world:
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they have been hurt.
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they feel weak or useless.
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they are different.
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they have dangerous enemies.
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they have done wrong and cannot bear to face the consequences.
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they have lost someone they love and see no way to face the world without them.
We pray for those who lock themselves away because they have lost hope.
We pray for those we know who are afraid to face the world, and for the millions we do not know who feel the same way, and if we know that we are locked away ourselves then we pray for ourselves too …
And we pray for those who have no choice but to face pain and hardship – the sick, the poor and those in trouble …
Lord of the upper room, be present in the minds of those who need your presence – be their light, their friend, their defender and their hope.
We ask it in your name. Amen
KEEP SAFE ….KEEP PRAYING……Peter
Hallelujah! Christ is Risen!
Join us in church or online for our service of Holy Communion for what is traditionally known as Low Sunday. 11th April 9:30am
https://youtu.be/aFgT4rZu-CA
You may want to look at some of the links detailed below.
Dear All,
Following the sad news of the death of His Royal Highness, Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, I felt it would be helpful to share a range of relevant resources for churches and parishes which are listed below:
A reflection on his life by Bishop of Leeds, the Rt Revd Nick Baines, which includes a link to a short video, may be read here
A reflection by the Archbishop of Canterbury, may be read here
A reflection by the Archbishop of York, may be read here
A Church of England online book of condolence, prayers and liturgical resources may be found here
Best wishes,
Jonathan
