Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Dear Friends

I learned a fantastic new word recently: “Koyaanisqatsi”. This is a Native American Hopi word which means “nature that is out of balance or a way of life that is so crazy that it cannot continue long-term”.

We know that the planet is struggling under the weight of all that we demand from it. Ocean acidity has increased over 25% from pre-industrial times, increased carbon dioxide is causing glaciers to melt which in turn is causing sea levels to rise, causing more floods.

We are told that 18% of the world’s greenhouse gases are produced by livestock, so eating less meat and fewer animal products is brilliant for helping to re-balance nature. Recently the Pope has called on Catholics to return to the tradition of fasting from meat on a Friday. Even when I was a school child, fish was served on Friday for lunch and now I realise why. Fasting on Friday was a tradition because Jesus was crucified on a Friday and of course, Sunday was always a feast day because that was the day that Jesus rose. Of course, we tend to prefer feasting to fasting. However, perhaps we would enjoy our Sunday roasts more if we had abstained from meat on a Friday.

In Isaiah 58:6-7 we are told: “Is not this the fast that I choose: to loose the bonds of injustice, to undo the thongs of the yoke, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into your house; when you see the naked to cover them and not to hide yourself from your own kin?”

We have always taken these words seriously as Methodists, and perhaps that’s why we don’t have a tradition of fasting to draw on. Nevertheless, in the face of the Koyaanisqatsi of human-driven climate change and a corresponding increase in natural disasters, perhaps we too should wonder about the benefits of fasting from meat once or twice a week. I’m not sure that we will manage it on a Friday in the manse – the youth work that we do on a Friday tends to be based around pizza – but I have been thinking for a while that we need more fish in our diets and I think that a weekly fish-eating day will not be a bad thing. I don’t think that a few of us changing our diets a little will make a big enough change, but by joining in with something the Catholics are doing who is to say what small but significant improvements we might make by such an ecumenical act?

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Dear Friends

The final words of George Eliot’s book “Middlemarch” say this: “But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts: and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”

In last Sunday’s evening service at Windsor, I reflected on the way in which ordinary people have helped to grow and develop our story as disciples of Christ Jesus and ordinary people in the Bible, such as Mary, Martha and Lazarus have inspired us and drawn us into their stories.

Day by day we are encouraged to dream big dreams and to live them out on the world stage. Our young people can do that in a way we never imagined because of the power of social media, and we are told over and over “You can be anything you want to be.” I don’t know how true that really is – we are hemmed about by the vagaries of our upbringing, our education, our genetic inheritance and the traumas we have experienced and all of these impact the choices we are able to make. It seems to me however, that it is worth remembering that for every Olympian there are thousands of young people enjoying sport for sport’s sake; for every politician there are millions of people setting the world to rights over the morning coffee or the evening dinner table; for every saint there are hundreds of the faithful, patterning their lives as closely as possible on that of Jesus and praying that their witness will be true.

To those who knew Jesus as he grew up, he was simply the carpenter’s son, then an itinerant preacher, notable for his ability to heal, who Rome and the Jewish authorities eventually decided to be too much of a good thing and crucified. The only reason his life was not a faithfully lived but hidden one was because he refused to remain in the tomb and his leaping forth at Easter to cry resurrection promise, made ordinary the idea of eternity. Not ordinary in that there is nothing special in it, but in that it is available to all. At this season of remembrance, let us hold fast to that truth for ourselves and for those who have gone before, that Jesus is the resurrection and the life and those who believe in him, even though they die will live, and everyone who lives and believes in him shall never die.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Dear Friends

I write this on the 25th of October, and incredible as it seems, it is scarcely more than six weeks since the Queen died, only two days after asking a new prime minister to form a government. Subsequently, we have been moved by the pomp and circumstance of a state funeral, concerned by a signalled return to the trickle-down economic policies of the 1980’s and then seen the new prime minister ousted in less than six weeks and a new leader selected and confirmed in five days. Meanwhile the wildly fluctuating markets may have given us some idea of how the rest of the world sees the whole sorry mess.

As I tried to make some theological sense of the whole thing, I turned in the Bible to 1 Samuel 8. Samuel of course, was that boy who served in the temple and heard God call him in the night, and having three times gone to the priest Eli thinking it was him, is told to say “Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.” He goes on to be a great prophet and leader, but when he appoints his sons as judges over Israel, they are not men of integrity, and the people demand a king. They want to be the same as the other countries of the Ancient Near East and although Samuel, instructed by God, points out to them that a king will take taxes and ask their sons to serve in his armies, still they demand a king and Saul is chosen. God says that it is not Samuel’s leadership that has been rejected, but that God himself has been ignored as king over Israel.

Now, just to be very clear about this, I am not advocating that we don’t have a king, or for that matter a prime minister. We need leaders and our system at its best works very well. However, we are reminded in the story of ancient Israel, and the future history of kingship in the Old Testament, that stability, humility, competence and integrity are all things that matter very much. My hope is that our new Prime Minister, who has explicitly said that he wants to bring all these things in his premiership, is able to do so.

In our prayers this week, let us pray for Rishi Sunak, that he will be given wisdom and discernment, that he will lead a government that balances the need for economic stability with compassion for the poor, that he will have the strength to cope with the extraordinary weight of these turbulent times and that as he seeks to do so, his family will not suffer. For we pray recognising the importance of good government but also in the power of the one who we call King of Kings, our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts for the week by Rev’d Vicci Davidson

Friends

The Bath Road gets very congested on a Sunday because of the Taplow car boot sale, and I drive up through Burnham and down via Cliveden if I am preaching at Cookham Rise. It is a magnificent route to take at this time of year when the trees are almost all the colours of the rainbow. It is hard to see such beauty and not believe that there is a creative hand at work behind it.

However, it is also true that without the creative hand of humanity cutting the road through the woodland, I would not have been able to witness God’s wonderful paint palate on Sunday; it would have been hidden away in impenetrable forest. God allows us to shape the world in which we live, to be a part of the creative process. We see this in the first account of Creation in Genesis 1:26-28 when God gives humankind dominion over animals and plants. It's important to understand that the Jewish word used here is a word that is usually translated as authority, and which is used to suggest authority like God’s – i.e. a loving care that wants what is best. The word used in Genesis 2 which is translated as “till” (as in “tilling the soil”) is more usually translated as “serve”. We were created with authority over the land, the plants and the animals to be exercised as loving service, not as grabbing everything that we could for our own satisfaction.

On days like today, I realise how blessed we are to be given such a task, to be asked to work alongside God for the good of all creation. Yet at this time in the history of the world, it feels at best a difficult job and at worst impossible that the planet can come out of the trajectory we are now on. Scientists tell us that we are hurtling towards increased numbers of extreme weather events, and changes in climate are causing constant migration for people who can no longer feed themselves on land that has kept them for generations. What does it mean I wonder, to be God’s gardeners in this environment, in this age?

It seems to me that when we read the Bible, it is full of stories of ordinary people. Some do extraordinary things but there are also ordinary people who disappear from the story. They presumably go on to do ordinary things. But if they do them well, they too must add to the joy of those around them and the glory of God. Let us seek through the ordinary living of our lives to take up our task to care for the earth, the plants and the animals with renewed energy, knowing that in so doing, we are following God’s earliest commands to us.

God bless,

Vicci

Thoughts from Rev’d Vicci Davidson & After the Rob Halligan Concert

Friends,

I wanted to share with you the song lyrics from a song I used at the Cookham Rise Harvest Festival, which began with a short service outside at the Community Allotment. It was written by Jean Ritchie (December 8, 1922 – June 1, 2015) who was an American folk singer and Appalachian dulcimer player and who became known as "The Mother of Folk".

My Lord, He said unto me

Do you like My garden so fair?

You may live in this garden if you keep the grasses green

And I'll return in the cool of the day

And my Lord, He said unto me

Do you like my garden so pure?

You may live in this garden, if you keep the waters clean

And I'll return in the cool of the day

Now is the cool of the day

Now is the cool of the day

This earth it is a garden, the garden of my Lord

And He walks in His garden in the cool of the day

And my Lord, He said unto me

Do you like my pastures so green?

You may live in this garden if you will feed My lambs

And I'll return in the cool of the day

Chorus

My Lord, He said unto me

Do you like my garden so free?

You may live in this garden if you keep the people free

And I'll return in the cool of the day

God bless,

Vicci

Rob Halligan concert

Last Saturday we enjoyed a very entertaining concert by musician, Rob Halligan. His wonderful singing, incredible guitar skills and humorous anecdotes were greatly appreciated by all who attended. The money raised will be split between Rosie’s Rainbow Charity and church funds.

Thoughts for the week from Rev'd Vicci & Harvest Supper News

Friends

Famine in Somalia, the ongoing war in Ukraine, the politics of our own country all conspire to cause concern, and as we turn to our Bibles, we do so knowing that to some of our friends and neighbours it is a hopelessly naïve response.

“I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you.  Plans to give you hope, and a future.”  (Jeremiah 29:11)

It doesn’t sit well with our understanding of a loving God that his plans might be unveiled in such difficult ways, and yet it depends on our interpretation of what is happening around us.  In the Genesis story of Joseph, Pharoah’s dreams are interpreted as meaning that there will be seven fat years and seven lean years.  The advice is to store up grain in the years where there is excess harvest so that come the time of difficulty there will be enough saved up to help the people survive.  It would seem that God did not plan the harvests, but rather the warning and the presence of an interpreter.

By this logic, it would be irrational to see these great difficulties that we are living through as being sent from God, but it would seem in keeping with our Biblical history to imagine that he would send warnings and those who can speak such warnings.  Yet it is hard to find these prophets and perhaps still harder to understand them.  When the news trumpets “Death and Disaster” are the writers speaking prophetically or are they trying to increase the thrill factor for the sake of sales?  It is so hard for us to interpret what is true and what is not, and yet our faith doesn’t give us answers, doesn’t even give us prophets, what it gives us is hope.  Hope that God cares enough to make plans for us; hope that there is a way through; hope that God, who “so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life” (John 3:16) has not forgotten us and never will.  We, like the Psalmist may cry: “How long, O Lord?   Will you forget me forever?  How long will you hide your face from me? ” (Psalm 13:1) but like the Psalmist, we too can say with conviction, “Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying sheaves with them.” (Psalm 126:6)

As the Harvest season draws to a close, may these well-loved verses bring us peace and confidence.

God bless,

Vicci

The International Harvest Supper held on Saturday 24th September was a great success, with over 50 members and friends in attendance. A worldwide variety of delicious food was served and thoroughly enjoyed by all! We are very grateful to everyone who helped to make this evening so enjoyable. Thanks also to all the fantastic cooks and all who attended or supported the event in other ways. We are all delighted that approximately £350 was raised for the charity ‘Rosie’s Rainbow’ and our much-needed Church Funds!

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

I got back off leave on Saturday to a week of excitement around children and young people. On Sunday, preaching at Burnham, we were blessed with three families, each coming in with their children and young folk, and since it’s not always easy to get everyone up and out on time on a Sunday morning, I had the rare but wonderful experience of what felt like more and more children walking up the aisle to take their seats through the first part of the service. We had a ball with six enthusiastic and knowledgeable budding theologians after several weeks with no children at all.

Then on Monday until Thursday, we were running a youth project at Windsor for 5 -11-year-olds and what great fun that was. 32 children came in every day to sing, dance and act from 10am to 3pm and I know that they would want to thank the team that made that happen: Elanor, Mark, Pat, Marion, Trixie, Jane, Ade, Pauline, Miles and of course, yours truly, who had an absolute blast putting on a show in four days. I had forgotten just how exhausting this age-group can be, but we had a lot of fun! In amidst all of this, there was also a wedding, a funeral, two meetings and a coffee morning. And they tell me August is a quiet month in the church!

It feels so busy and so modern, and yet so much is the same as it has always been. Parents have always brought children to church, or synagogue or to be blessed by the itinerant preacher who is prepared to tell off his followers for turning them away. There have always been weddings and funerals, meetings and gatherings (even if there hasn’t always been coffee!) In these difficult times, it is worth remembering that these price hikes and worries, concerns about global stability and trade, wars and rumours of wars are and have been since before the time of Jesus, the very stuff of life. Yet whether we lean on Genesis 50:21 when Joseph promises his family in a time of universal famine, “Do not fear. I will provide for you and your children” or on Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, I am with you; do not be afraid for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand” or on Matthew 6:34 “So do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own. Today’s trouble is enough for today” the one thing we know is that God loves us yesterday, today and tomorrow.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

It was my last chairing of a Church Council at High Street this evening and I am very aware that we are finally moving towards “normal” – whatever that may look like in the Thames Valley Circuit. I will go back to having three churches (plus some oversight of Colnbrook and Poyle), two ministers with whom I have enjoyed much laughter will be sitting down and a whole new team will be starting on the 1st of September. It’s exciting, and although it is tempting to quote Isaiah whenever anything new happens, 43:19 seems particularly apt as we move towards the new Connexional year: “See I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.”

At this time when we are seeing a return to normality, even if it is not normality as we would like it to be in some ways (rising costs and failing resources are not what we were looking forward to!) still there is hope that God is doing a new thing, and he may even be doing it here in our churches, where our numbers are going down and yet so much that is good is coming up.

In Isaiah 43, God is promising to rescue Israel from the Babylonian exile, reminding them that he has previously rescued them from slavery in Egypt, and looking forward to the time when he will indeed do a new thing with the birth of Jesus. God gave water in the desert when the Israelites fled from Egypt, he will give water now and Jesus will offer streams of living water – the Holy Spirit to resource and strengthen his people in the future.

What can we look to in our lives and the life of our church that speaks of what God has done in our past, what he is doing now and what we believe he can and will do in the future? We have the hope that what is happening right now will indeed give us streams of living water, because we can see his Spirit at work in our lives, in the lives of our friends and family and in the history of the Church throughout the ages.

God is doing a new thing, and new things require change, and all change can be frightening. But he has sent the comforter, he has promised to lead us by still waters and through green pastures and our help does indeed come from him. May you have a blessed summer as we look forward to all that he will do for us and with us in the coming year.

God bless,

Vicci

News - Exciting Holiday Club at Windsor Methodist Church!

Exciting Holiday Club at Windsor Methodist Church - Sing, Dance, Act - here's your chance to put on a show in 4 days. 

Monday the 22nd to Thursday the 25th of August

10am - 3pm

Windsor Methodist Church

We will provide squash and biscuits, but the children will need to bring packed lunches. 

6-11 year olds 

Book by emailing rev.vicci@mail.com

We will put together a devised show "A Sunny Afternoon in the Library" which will be performed for parents and loved ones at 3pm on Thursday.  It will last between 30 and 45 minutes.  

The cost is £10 for the week (ie £2.50 per day)

It is possible to miss a day, as each day will have a different focus, but it is designed to be a four day package.  

 

This club is run by experienced, professional theatre teachers and ex-theatre teachers, who are all DBS checked and have received Safeguarding Training from the Methodist Church.  There are 24 places in total and they are going fast, so it is recommended that you sign up quickly. 

 

God bless

Vicci 

Revd Vicci Davidson
Burnham, Cookham Rise, High Street Maidenhead and Windsor Methodist Churches
Superintendent Minister - The Thames Valley Circuit of the Methodist Church

Just passing by! Notes of the late Rev’d Dr Selwyn Hughes on Luke 10: 25 - 37

‘A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side.’ (v 31) “I have always thought that our text for today is one of the saddest verses in the whole of Scripture. The priest in Jesus’ story passed by in stolid indifference and watched the man who had been assaulted by robbers go through agony. He did not seem to care.

That same attitude – the attitude of not caring – seems to be increasingly common in our contemporary society. Recently, while watching television, I heard a journalist comment, ‘We have many crises in our world but one of the greatest is the crisis caused by the lack of care.’ So how should we Christians live out our lives in a world where there is little care for one another? We should keep on caring. To allow other people and their attitudes to determine our own conduct is unchristian.

Shakespeare, as you probably know, wrote some words that are in harmony with Scripture; ‘Love is not love that alters when it alteration finds.’ Brotherly kindness – true brotherly kindness, that is – does not change no matter what changes there are in others. It was said of John the Baptist that he was a ‘voice …. calling in the desert’ (Matt. 3:3). Someone has remarked that the difference between a voice and an echo is that a voice is proactive and an echo is reactive. Are we echoes or are we voices?

Years ago a missionary doctor from the USA went to China. While attending typhus cases he himself was stuck down and ravaged by the disease. Yet when he heard that a coolie woman would die if she did not have a Caesarean operation, he bade his colleagues carry him to the operating room and operated on her as he was dying. Perhaps the coolie woman never knew about this and maybe she did not care. But he cared - and that is enough.

A prayer:

‘O God, help me to bring to all my relationships an attitude of care and concern that will help lighten other people’s loads. Save me from just passing by. In Jesus’ Name. Amen.”

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

Rather than my usual “thought for the week” I thought I would share one of the hymns I wrote while on sabbatical two years ago.

Holy Spirit once sent from Heaven to earth

Answering a prayer Jesus made for us

He overcame death, fear and sin

And sent his Spirit to remain with us.

(Chorus)

In the Father’s name, and the Son’s great love

The Spirit comes to live in us

Greater than the earth and the heavens above

The Spirit comes to remain with us.

We will never be left to work alone

When we ask the Spirit to enter in

Comforter and support, and friend of peace

Helps us share our worries, takes the guilt of sin.

(Chorus)

Come live in us today and fire our hearts

Let us know the new life Nicodemus knew

Waken up your Church and the life within

Let us learn a new way to remain in you.

(Chorus)

God Bless,

Vicci

Rev'd Vicci's thought for the week

Friends

I visited St Mary’s Hitcham for the first time today.  We held our Churches Together in Burnham meeting there and it was lovely to see this little 12th century church rising up to greet me as I drove down the hill through wooded back lanes.  Such places remind us that the faith has persevered, survived and indeed thrived through plague, fire and misfortune before and will do so again and the prayers of the faithful have permeated the very walls of the sanctuary. 

I feel something of that prayer permeation when we meet fortnightly for prayer in the Cornerstone Chapel where prayers have been spoken for far fewer years than the 850 or so that St Mary’s has been in existence, and where until the 1990’s it was merely the vestibule to the church proper.  Yet still, there is a sense of the presence of God in that place where prayers are offered on a regular basis. 

There will have been something of that in the Temple in Jerusalem – even more so since there had been nowhere else where it was permissible to offer sacrifices since the time of King Josiah in the 6th century BC.  How terrible, how offensive it was for Jesus to talk about the temple being pulled down and rebuilt in three days; how significant and frightening it must have been when the curtain to the Holy of Holies rent in two when Jesus was crucified, and how utterly horrific was the sacking and destruction of the temple in AD70.  Yet these three things combined hold within them some of the most powerful understandings of our faith: that God is in his temple, and that the temple is the world; that Jesus is God and thus also God’s temple, and that he was killed and rose again after three days; that any man-made obstacle, be it curtain or wall, that stands between God and the people has been removed by the willing sacrifice of Christ made once for all upon the cross.

As the weather improves and we are able to walk abroad more frequently, let us give thanks for our buildings as we pass them.  Buildings that allow us to meet and learn of God but which can never contain him who is to be found in the highways and the byways, the market place, the school, the city and the village.  One God, world without end.  As we enter Ascensiontide, we remember that Jesus rose from death and ascended into Heaven, but we remember also all that he left on earth as we look forward to the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

After two years of lockdown and working from home where I tend to potter around in bare feet, I find that I am not enjoying wearing my high heels as much as I used to. My feet have lost the habit of it, and the fashion for white trainers with brightly coloured suits is one that I shall reluctantly embrace this summer. I see on the streets of London that others too have arrived at the same conclusion, but it reminds me of the importance of comfortable feet and here towards the end of the Easter season, that when Jesus washed his disciples’ feet, it was more than an act of humility and service.

Jesus was doing something that was usually done by a servant, but it was usual to have it done, because tramping the dusty roads in open sandals left the feet dusty and irritated. Indeed, when Jesus’ feet are anointed by Mary at Bethany and people start to rebuke her, Jesus points out that the host has overlooked this simple foot-washing courtesy. In our time, what service can we perform that is normal and necessary but that might in fact be overlooked?

Jesus is reminding them that it is easier to tell someone else to do something than to do it ourselves, but that if we do not seek to serve, we can never hope to lead. Leadership within the Church is always servant leadership, and yet it is so difficult to get the help that we need in these days. Are you able to serve your fellow congregants by taking on some of the work of the day? Am I able to organise things to take on more, or support more?

Above all, Jesus calls us to think of the needs of those who are with us in the work before our own needs. We are not told whether he was weary or frightened as he set out to wash those long-ago disciples’ feet, but we know that by later in the evening he will ask God to remove the cup from his lips if it is possible to do so. He will have inevitably been wrestling with many thoughts and yet he is able to trust that these people who have been drawn to him and whom he has called will follow through – in spite of Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial. They will as a group announce the coming of the Son of God and of the Kingdom of God and their faith, empowered by the Holy Spirit, will be enough to change the world.

Whatever we are called to do for the church and for the community in the coming months, let us too be worthy of such trust.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev'd Vicci's thought for the week

Friends

As we start to see the impact of the rising cost of living, we may be struggling to make ends meet, or have friends or relatives who we suspect are so struggling.  Meanwhile, almost every day, I seem to get an offer in my email box for a credit card or bank loan and encouragement to solve our immediate problems by taking on longer term ones sometime in the future is endemic in the way consumer countries create finance in our current systems.

Throughout history, there has been criticism levelled at the Church because of what is perceived as a “pie in the sky when you die” approach.  An approach that says: “We don’t need to worry about now, however awful, because eternity will be lovely”.  Somehow, the people preaching this always seemed to be doing okay.  More recently, an alternative has been offered – that of the prosperity Gospel theologians (if I can dignify them with such a name!) who believe that financial blessing and physical wellbeing are always the will of God for us and that faith, positive speech and donations to religious causes will increase our own wealth – although it often seems that only the leaders get wealthy.  

Neither of these theological positions is true.  Instead, Jesus came that we might have life in all its fullness, and that life is intended to be lived not on a multi-million pound yacht, but in community with others.  We look to those around us and when we spot a problem that we can help with, we make the offer and when we can do nothing, we give moral support and do what we can.  Our faith entitles us to God’s love (which belongs to all of humanity anyway) and forgiveness of sin (which we all need) and a promise that “as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.”  It most certainly does not entitle us to wealth beyond the dreams of avarice. These next few months are not going to be easy.  The government hopes to get through it by increasing work opportunities and encouraging employers to pay more for skilled workers so that after a brief period of discomfort, the quality of life will go up for everyone.  As is always the case, even if the plan works, there will be those who are left behind.  As each of our churches questions its own calling in the aftermath of covid-induced losses, we should perhaps listen carefully to those who are brave enough to share what is going on for them in these difficult times.  It may be that we will find within these stories the next steps we need to take as church and as community. 

God bless.  Vicci

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

I wonder if you remember learning this little poem when you were children?

“Whether the weather be fine, or whether the weather be not

Whether the weather be cold, or whether the weather be hot.

We’ll weather the weather, whatever the weather, whether we like it or not.”

I suppose it was invented to help with the ongoing perplexity of English spelling where we have more than a few homophones (words that sound the same but are spelled differently).

In our Christian lives of worship, we may also find something similar. For example, we all think we know what we mean by the word “worship” but for some people it must incorporate half an hour of singing at the beginning with a highly professionalised worship band and technical set up and for others, it means an organ, a great choir, an introit, anthem, sung blessing and five hymns and then for still others it’s about taking the best of both those traditions and using a bit of both in ways that speak to the skills of our own congregation - which is what we try to do at Windsor.

However, although words like “weather” and “whether” and “been” and “bean” have different meanings according to the spelling used, worship is always about giving of ourselves to God. Whether we do that through modern singing, old hymns, a mixture of both, words, visuals, standing or sitting, ultimately, it’s about God and it is our hope that what we do Sunday by Sunday pleases God and allows us to meet with him in a special way.

Perhaps our private prayer life has become dry or stale, perhaps we are wrestling with something that makes faith seem a little too far away to grasp, perhaps our prayers hit the bedroom ceiling and come right back to us. The hope is that any blockage in our personal relationship with God is broken through on a Sunday when, meeting corporately, we can lean on each other and give God the glory. This Sunday, which is the Sunday School Anniversary, we will be having an All Age Service which will be fun and interactive, whilst still being worship. Doubtless we will recall that the Sunday School is the church of the future. Once upon a time, we too were the church of the future and the faith that you have held to, Sunday by Sunday has brought us to this time and place. I give thanks for it.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

Earlier this week I went to see “Dirty Dancing”. The musical based on the 1980’s film released in the summer I was 18. As school finished and we set off on our own adventures as young adults the film resonated in all sorts of ways. Certain moments have become iconic: the girl who, bowled over by the sheer attractiveness of the male lead can only think to say: “I carried a watermelon” and is then embarrassed all over again by the sheer banality of her words; the moment when Danny reappears at the end of the film and says: “Nobody puts Baby in the corner” and then the wonderful, visual imagery of the great lift in the final dance of the show – the one they have practiced and failed at throughout the evening. We applauded enthusiastically as each remembered moment was faithfully reproduced on stage and as the soundtrack to our youth poured over us, I will not have been the only one who felt a little jolt of nostalgia and wistfulness for the exuberance and self-belief of our younger selves.

That’s what this time of year is supposed to be like. The great re-telling of the familiar story. The betrayal, the forgiveness, the washing of the feet, the “Do this in remembrance of me” and “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do” and “Eloi, eloi, lammas sabaccthani” and “Today, you will be with me in Paradise.” We should hear these words told in the old, old story and want to applaud, weep and hope, remembering once again the time when we first heard the story. And on Easter Sunday we should be bowled over by the sheer excitement and energy of the resurrection.

We have become so familiar with this most wonderful of stories, that we forget to be excited and enthused as each line comes along, as each act unfolds. Perhaps also, when faced with fears for the future of the church to which we have given so much, we forget that ours is a resurrection faith. It has been a terribly sad time for the Circuit, and particularly for the Windsor section, as Old Windsor and Eton Wick ceased to meet, and yet as the members of these beloved congregations move their membership to other churches in the circuit, they bring resurrection hope with them, strengthening and uplifting the fellowships which they join. Inevitably we fear that our numbers and our abilities to speak the Good News are dwindling. But we have a faithful God, we are a resurrection people, and the faith we profess and the love we share holds out hope for the years to come. Happy Easter.

God bless,

Vicci

Rev’d Vicci Davidson’s ‘Thought for the Week’

Friends

I wonder what you do with your palm crosses each year? In the church, traditionally, they are kept until the following Lent when they are burned to make the ashes for Ash Wednesday. Small children open them out to make swords, some people use them as book marks and I knew one lady who kept a large vase filled with them and added to a year at a time. They remind us of how quickly the “Glory, Hallelujahs” turned to “Crucify him”. They can perhaps also remind us of how much that is a part of human nature. How often have we seen an England football team go out to play in the world cup with opinion pieces on a particular player in all the papers. Such and such an one will change our luck and we will win the cup they trumpet. Then a penalty is missed, an over-zealous tackle is punished and suddenly we are told that the previously lauded player is actually a terrible person. No-one has anything good to say about them and they are pilloried in newspapers of all political persuasions. All too quickly it seems, we are ready to turn and rend our heroes of yesterday.

It is not unusual for people to acclaim and then destroy, particularly if the acclaimed one does not perform in the way they want. It is rare for people to die for someone else. In his letter to the Romans, Paul says this: “Very rarely will someone die for a righteous person, though for a good person, someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”

As we journey through this last week before the death and resurrection of Good Friday and Easter Sunday, it is tempting to leap ahead. We are surrounded by shops wanting us to grab the hot cross buns, simnel cakes and chocolate eggs right now and then use Easter itself as an excuse to go back for seconds. But if we succumb to that temptation, we are making the mistake of jumping from Palm Sunday and it’s “Hosanna to the Son of David” straight to Easter Sunday. And without the pain of the crowd turning, of Judas’ betrayal and Peter’s denial, of Pilate’s handwashing, and the soldier’s whipping and the nails driving into flesh and bone and wood; without the washing of feet and the injunction to “love one another as I have loved you”; without the last supper and the requirement to “do this as often as you eat it in remembrance of me” then Easter Sunday is trivialised. Yes, we are an Easter people, but it is our recognition of what came before that makes the celebration all that it is.

God bless,

Vicci