Thought for the Month
Join me each month as I ponder life with all the highs and lows we encounter along the way.
I hope you enjoy my blog whose aim is to raise a smile as well as give food for thought.
As always, I would love to hear from you, so please contact me 01278 781147 c.judson@btinternet.com
God bless you.
Rev Chris
February 2025 ‘Change and Hope’
I wonder how you feel about change? Is it something that excites you or wearies you? Do you feel a longing that ‘so called’ progress would slow down? Or are you easily bored by the constant, and delight in the new? I guess we are all different, and that our answers may depend on a host of factors.
Through 2025 our benefice of ‘The Huntspills & Mark’ will be moving toward a change. From 1st January 2026, Mark will join with the parishes of The Isle of Wedmore (Allerton, Blackford, Wedmore and Theale) to form a new benefice (with their current Vicar, Rev Richard Neill), and East and West Huntspill will form a smaller benefice (with myself as Rector, reducing to a part-time post). This change is happening as a result of cut-backs to the clergy numbers across the Bath and Wells Diocese, due to the reduction in financial support from the parishes. Consultations have been extensive, and although this is not a change that we have sought, in the circumstances it seems the right way forward.
In the light of this, I have two main thoughts, and a bonus, to share with you. Firstly, as Max De Pree, American businessman and writer, once said: ‘Change without continuity is chaos.’ Through 2025 we will be working hard to ensure that the change we face is carefully managed to provide as smooth a transition as possible. At the same time, we need to recognise that change is not necessarily a bad thing. De Pree went on to say: ‘Continuity without change is sloth – and very risky.’ The Christian faith is all about transformation and change, and it is filled with hope. I pray that we may all be open to the opportunities that this change will bring, looking forward to the future, knowing that the God we believe in is trustworthy and true.
My second thought concerns the direction of travel that this change may represent. In the past, church attendance was viewed as compulsory and the church was supported by the majority of people in each community, thus ensuring its future. I’m pleased that we’ve lost the compulsory attendance element, as I’d far rather people came because they want to, but I shall be deeply saddened if we lose the presence of the church in any of our villages. I hope and pray that the church (the history it holds, the current role it performs and its opportunities for future development) is valued sufficiently by each village for the villagers to commit to its livelihood and safeguard it for the future. If you already contribute to the upkeep and running of your church – thank you. If you are able to review your commitment and maybe increase it a little, that will be very helpful – all gifts (regular, periodical and one-off) make a difference. If this is something you haven’t done yet, please do consider it. Let’s make sure that the reduction in clergy-time, for each of our churches, that we are facing at the end of this year does not have to happen again.
And the bonus? Well, just in case you haven’t yet heard, I am delighted to inform you that on 22nd January 2025 Rev Margaret Hayward was licensed to our benefice. Margaret is an Ordained Self-Supporting Minister (O.S.S.M.), who is gifting us one or two days’ ministry a week, around her other commitments. She ministered in Burnham Parish a while ago, and more recently in Kewstoke & Wick St Lawrence. Her ministry will be a blessing to all three of our villages as we transition into the future. We welcome her and look forward to all that God will do through her and through us all.
May you know the blessing of the God who loves you beyond measure and who calls you into fullness of life, through every change you are facing.
Rev Chris
December 2024 ‘Calm and Bright’
By the time we step into December we can be in little doubt that ‘Christmas is coming!’. As Advent Calendars are begun, stepping us day by day toward 25th December, I wonder how you are feeling? December can seem rather pressurised, with lots of social events, services, presents to buy, cards to write and never-ending to-do lists. The idea of creating the ‘perfect Christmas’ appears all over the place, with many different ideas of what that perfection might look like. A sense of things being ‘out of control’, unattainable and/or chaotic can easily pervade – leaving us wanting to scream or ‘run and hide’ or maybe just ‘try to get through it’.
Into this arena come our Christmas Carols which paint a very different picture:
“Silent Night! Holy Night! All is calm, all is bright…..”
This well-loved carol invites us into the still centre of the Christmas story, to contemplate Mary holding the new born Jesus, the Light of the World. The messages we hear from the angels in the Biblical story of Jesus’ birth hold together the need for calm in the present (‘Do not be afraid’…’Fear not’) with the hope of a bright future (‘for you have found favour with God’….’’I bring you tidings of great joy’).
Isn’t this what we truly long for? These two words……calm and bright…..bring together our needs and hopes, our true desires.
This Advent, as Christmas approaches at speed, may you find moments of calm, giving you the chance to pause and think……so that you can then move toward celebrating the real brightness of Christmas – the good news of Jesus, Immanuel, God with us. To help with this, you might like to read or listen to the daily Advent and Christmas reflections from 1 December available through the Everyday Faith app, from the Church of England, which you can download at Everyday Faith app or you might like to come and ‘be’ at one of the Advent Peace sessions in Church, or you might want to simply light a candle at home and take a moment……
May God bless you with peace and joy throughout your Advent preparations and your Christmas Celebrations, and may you know that you are loved and treasured by your maker.
With love in Christ,
Rev Chris