Monthly Archives: June 2020

Support St Mary’s while you shop online for free with easyfundraising

Did you know that whenever you buy anything online – from your weekly shop to your annual holiday – you could be raising free donations for St Mary’s Church Billingsley with easyfundraising?

There are over 4,000 shops and sites on board ready to make a donation – including eBay, Argos, John Lewis, ASOS, Booking.com and M&S – and it won’t cost you a penny extra to help us raise funds.

All you need to do is:

1. Go to https://www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/stmaryschurchbillingsley/?utm_campaign=raise-more and join for free.

2. Every time you shop online, go to easyfundraising first to find the site you want and start shopping.

3. After you’ve checked out, the retailer will make a donation to St Mary’s Church Billingsley at no extra cost to you whatsoever!

There are no catches or hidden charges and St Mary’s Church Billingsley will be really grateful for your donations.

Thank you for your support.

Thought for the week ‘In the end, God’

Thought for the week; In the end, God.

Like many, I was saddened to hear of the tragic death of the former champion jockey, Liam Treadwell, aged 34 and living in Billingsley. I do not think I ever met him; until his death was announced this Wednesday, I had no idea he was living amongst us. But as one of our parishioners, we have been praying for him, his family and all who mourn him.

As far as I know, Liam died alone. The thought of a solitary death is something that many of us find particularly difficult; indeed, a death in the absence of our family and friends is troubling and the first relaxation of the lockdown was to allow people to be physically with their loved ones at the end. Sadly, that is not always possible.

Religious faith does not protect against grief or fears; those emotions are part of our human condition and are built into us. But it does offer us another view of the end of life. Psalm 139 is perhaps my favourite psalm and it has important things to say about a God from whose love who we cannot escape, even in death:

Where can I go then from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence?

If I climb up to heaven, you are there; if I make the grave my bed, you are there also.

If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

Even there your hand shall lead me, your right hand hold me fast.

If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will cover me and the light around me turn to night,’

Even darkness is no darkness with you; the night is as clear as the day; darkness and light to you are both alike. 

The priest and poet, Malcolm Guite, has recently written about the death of a homeless man. This person had had his portrait painted some time before he died and the picture now hangs in the Cambridge college at which Guite is based. For Guite, looking at this picture is a reminder that Christ gazes at all humanity with the care and love of a portrait artist, for he is our creator. And at our end, it is Christ, perhaps only Christ, who will be always present, and who will take our right hand to lead us into his Kingdom. For us all, in the end, God.

Services and events for week beginning 28th June

Dear All,

Details of events this coming week are below: all are welcome! Please pass these invitations on to anyone who you think might be interested.

 

1) Wednesday evening catch-up

July 1, 2020 07:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3592851895?pwd=cksyL0t5TlhFUURRenpxMG9yQTVhUT09

2) Friday Morning Prayer, 9.00am

July 3, 2020 09:00 AM London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3592851895?pwd=cksyL0t5TlhFUURRenpxMG9yQTVhUT09

Service at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer/morning-prayer-contemporary-friday-3-july-2020

3) Friday night prayer

July 3, 2020 09:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3592851895?pwd=cksyL0t5TlhFUURRenpxMG9yQTVhUT09

Meeting ID: 359 285 1895

Service at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer/night-prayer-contemporary-friday-3-july-2020

 4) Sunday morning prayer

July 5, 2020 10:00 AM London

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/3592851895?pwd=cksyL0t5TlhFUURRenpxMG9yQTVhUT09

 

Service at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer/morning-prayer-contemporary-sunday-5-july-2020

 

Community come together at St Mary’s

The churchyard at St Mary’s is managed as a wildlife area and crucial maintenance is carried out three times a year by volunteers of the Caring for God’s Acre charity. Ever since the church was established, this has involved periodically cutting the grass and uprooting tree saplings and brambles that would otherwise take over. This is the classic way in which hay meadows are managed; as we now have so few meadows, churchyards such as Billingsley are precious resources. Due to the lockdown, our Spring visit from Caring for Gods Acre had to be cancelled and it is unlikely that they will be able to come along any time soon.  Fortunately over the last week a team have come forward to cut back the grass and saplings and the transformation has been dramatic. as the before and after pictures show We are extremely grateful to everyone who has helped us; what has been particularly encouraging is how both church attenders and non-attenders have worked together to make this a real community project.  We also now have a photographic record of all the gravestones in the churchyard. Many thanks to Sam Leather for carrying this out. And the best news of all is that, thanks again to volunteer effort, we have been able to reopen the church for private prayer!

David Poyner

Photos show the gravestone of Eliza Mary (“Girlie”) Davies, died aged 7 in 1907, in Billingsley churchyard before and after grass cutting.

 

 

 

Services and events for week beginning 22nd June

D ear All,

Details of events this coming week are below: all are welcome! Please pass these invitations on to anyone who you think might be interested.

 

1) Wednesday evening catch-up

Jun 24, 2020 07:00 PM

2) Friday Morning Prayer, 9.00am

Jun 26, 2020 09:00 AM

Service at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer/morning-prayer-contemporary-friday-26-june-2020

3) Friday night prayer

Jun 26, 2020 09:00 PM

 

Service at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer/night-prayer-contemporary-friday-26-june-2020

 4) Sunday morning prayer 

Jun 28, 2020 10:00 AM

Service at https://www.churchofengland.org/prayer-and-worship/join-us-in-daily-prayer/morning-prayer-contemporary-sunday-28-june-2020

Anyone who wishes to join any of the above events or services is very welcome. Please contact Rev. David Poyner for joining details (d.r.poyner@aston.ac.uk)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thought for the week 22nd June – Where the church is…

After three months of lock-down, we have at last managed to reopen Billingsley Church for private prayer, or simply to come inside and reflect or look round. We are of course still having to take precautions and these are listed on the church door, so please follow these if you do visit but we welcome all who come!

 

We still cannot hold services in the building and it will be some weeks before that happens. What has struck me is how the life of our church has continued in community, even without the use of a building. At the start of lock-down, Dave Walker published the cartoonabove in the Church Times. It needs no more words from me, beyond to thank all those who are the church in their daily lives.

 

David Poyner

Services and events week beginning 15th June

1) Wednesday evening catch-up

 Jun 17, 2020 07:00 PM London 

2) Friday Morning Prayer, 9.00am

 Jun 19, 2020 09:00 AM London

3) Friday night prayer

 Jun 19, 2020 09:00 PM London 

 4) Sunday morning prayer 

  Jun 21, 2020 10:00 AM London

 If you would like to join any of the above please contact David (d.r.poyner@aston.ac.uk) further information. Everyone welcome.

Thought for the week – Past Lives Matter

Suddenly, past lives matters. Memorials have become political; our news is dominated by the statue of Edward Colston of Bristol, a man who until recently was only of local interest and who died almost 300 years ago. His entry on Wikipedia sums up his life and the issues it raises: he was an “English merchant, philanthropist, and Tory Member of Parliament who became involved in the Atlantic slave trade”. Which of these do we wish to remember? When his statue was put up in Bristol 125 years ago, he was remembered as a philanthropist; the crowd who pulled his statue down last Sunday saw him as a slave trader. He was of course both.

It is not for me to comment on the rights or wrongs in this case. But I am interested in the way we remember other people, those long dead but also sometimes those very much alive. There is a danger that we see individuals too simplistically, as either heroes or villains, judged entirely by our own values or those currently fashionable. The church, with its long and still-growing list of saints can be as guilty of this as any organisation. But if we turn to the Bible, we often find warts-and-all presentations of the great heroes of both the Old and New Testaments. King David is held up as the founding King of Israel; we are told that God promised David that his descendants would rule for ever and Jesus was called “son of David” by the crowd in recognition of this; his ancestry was traced back to the king. And yet the historians who recorded David’s life told how he betrayed one of his most loyal generals, Uriah. He slept with Bathsheba, Uriah’s wife and when he got her pregnant, he arranged for Uriah to be killed. Those who acclaimed Jesus as “son of David” were well aware that David himself was a flawed human; sometimes loyal and brave, sometimes not. That is what it means to be human, to struggle with and sometimes give into what the Bible calls sin. This doesn’t mean that we should not admire some individuals more than others, but if we see all their lives in the round, it may help us be more honest about ourselves and our own values.

Services and events week beginning 8th June

1) Wednesday evening catch-up

Jun 10, 2020 07:00 PM London

2) Friday Morning Prayer, 9.00am

Jun 12, 2020 09:00 AM London

3) Friday night prayer

David Poyner is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Jun 12, 2020 09:00 PM London

 4) Sunday morning prayer

Jun 14, 2020 10:00 AM London

If you are interested in joining any of the above events or services please contact Rev. David Poyner (d.r.poyner@aston.ac.uk) for joining details.

 

 

 

Thought for the week – Justice, mercy and the cross

Justice, mercy and the Cross

This week, at last, the news has not been entirely dominated by Covid; instead, it has been events in the USA that have grabbed the attention of the media. George Floyd died whilst being detained by police; an officer has now been charged with his murder. The response has been (at the time of writing), twelve nights of protest. In this country there have also been mass demonstrations, in spite of pleas to follow the current law on mass gatherings to stop the Covid outbreak. These demonstrations have partly been in sympathy with the those protesting in the USA but also in response to racism in this country.

All this raises difficult questions about justice and personal responsibility. These are timeless issues and they are at the heart of the Jewish and Christian scriptures. Time and time again, the Old Testament tells of a God who loves justice and mercy, two qualities which do not always fit easily together. But they come together in the voice from the cross, from the one who rejected power in this world and who instead asked for forgiveness for those who tortured and killed him and who reached out in love to a thief crucified alongside him. The love which God demonstrated through Jesus is not an easy path to follow; it makes hypocrites of all of us who try to base our lives on it. And yet we persist; by individual acts of love, of action for justice, of self-restraint, we see God’s kingdom breaking out on earth.