Saturday 20 October 2012

Minds of Clay


One morning recently I was reading Isaiah 55 when verse 9 rather leapt out and punched me on the nose. You see, the day before I’d heard myself speaking in a meeting, and as I spoke I was internally questioning whether anything, anything at all that I was saying was even remotely close to God’s heart. Blah, blah, blah, I listened to myself, blah, blah, blah. I seemed pretty confident and coherent but hardly touched by the divine; Hmmmm. And then verse nine the following morning from the World Boxing Council:

As the heavens are higher than the earth
So are my ways higher than your ways
And my thoughts than your thoughts

God may be close, Christ is with us even until the end of the age, but that distance between the divine mind and the human effort sometimes seems to have closed so little, and on my good days I see it in myself first and in others second. Then on the phone that afternoon I heard myself talking again and reflected as I was talking on and on that if I was God I’d give myself a slap with Isaiah 55:9 too. Yes we carry our treasure in jars of clay, we speak with lips of clay and we think with minds of clay.

I can see why Paul writing to a badly behaving church in Corinth didn’t ask the church to simply abandon and shut down the spiritual gifts because of their misuse; to back away would be to exchange one form of diminished church for another. Paul’s plea to a church to eagerly desire the greater gifts is a call to abandon the low valleys and ravines of our thoughts and to ascend to the higher thoughts and ways of God. Our lower thoughts serve the church poorly and the world even worse.

It highlighted to me the need for the prophetic, the wise and the discerning to emerge prayerfully from Christian leaders and the Christian body. And those of you that know your 1 Corinthians will be pointing out that it’s all there in chapter two: none of us can say ‘we have the mind of Christ’ without the Spirit, the One who knows the thoughts of God. (I’m resisting finishing with ‘it is the pneumatic that changes the pathetic into the prophetic, although that might become a three point sermon at some future point.)

Abbey November Diary

While we redevelop the Abbey website, which sadly doesn't have a diary page, we thought it might be helpful to have the monthly diary viewable here. If you have any questions please phone the parish office on 01666 826666. 

Thursday 1st November
4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice

Friday 2nd November

9-10am           Organ Practice

Saturday 3rd November

9-10am           Prayers
5.30pm           Arrival of Maasai Warriors
7.30pm           Performance by Osiligi Maasai Warriors

Sunday 4th November
8am                BCP Holy Communion
10.30am        Holy Communion
4pm                Informal Family Worship (no Junior Church)
6.30pm           Service of Thanksgiving for the Faithful Departed

Monday 5th November

7pm                Malmesbury Singers Rehearsal

Tuesday 6th November

9.30am           Women Alive!

Wednesday 7th November

10.30am         Holy Communion

Thursday 8th November

4pm                Evening Prayer
7.30pm           Poppy Appeal Concert

Friday 9th November

9-10am           Organ Practice
12.30pm         Tour – no guide
7pm                FNT

Saturday 10th November
9-10am           Prayers

Sunday 11th November
8am                Holy Communion
10.30am         Holy Communion with Act of Remembrance
2.30pm           British Legion & Churches Together, Service of Remembrance
4pm                Informal Worship with Act of Remembrance for families

Monday 12th November

2.15pm           Prayers for Local Schools in St Aldhelm’s Chapel

Tuesday 13th November

7.15pm           Refresh!  Film Night – Amazing Grace

Wed 14th November

10.30am         Holy Communion
7pm                Cantores Choir Rehearsal

Thurs 15th November

4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice

Friday 16th November

9-10am           Organ Practice
7pm                FNT

Saturday 17th November

9-10am           Prayers

Sunday 18th November
8am                BCP Holy Communion
10.30am         Holy Communion; Preacher, the Bishop of Swindon
4pm                Informal Worship; Preacher, the Bishop of Swindon with Junior Church

Monday 19th November

7pm                Malmesbury Singers

Tuesday 20th November

9.30am           Women Alive!

Wednesday 21st November

10.30am         Holy Communion
7.30pm           Intercessory Prayer

Thursday 22nd November

4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice
8pm                Café Theology

Friday 23rd November

9-10am           Organ Practice
7pm                FNT

Saturday 24th November

9-10am           Prayers
3pm                Set up & rehearsal for concert
7.30pm           Concert

Sunday 25th November
8am                BCP Holy Communion
10.30am        Morning Prayer with Baptisms
4pm                Informal Worship & All-Age Communion (no Junior Church)
8pm                ((resonate))

Monday 26th November

7pm                Malmesbury Singers Rehearsl

Wednesday 28th November

10.30am         Holy Communion
7.30pm           Prayer Ministry Training Evening

Thursday 29thNovember

4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice

Friday 30th November

9-10am           Organ Practice
6-8pm             LATE NIGHT SHOPPING




Thursday 18 October 2012

Maasai Warriors


Introducing solar lights to your community, building a church and community centre, building a six classroom primary school, kitchen & dining room and teachers' houses, undertaking maintenance of clean water supplies, sponsoring 65 orphans or children from very poor families to attend school – perhaps not exactly what you’d expect a warrior to do? The Osiligi Maasai warriors are slightly different. Osiligi is the Maasai word for ‘hope’, and Osiligi is a UK charity working with the Warriors to help to relieve poverty in the Maasai areas of Kenya without changing the culture of the communities it assists. The charity is run by volunteers and 100% of all donations go to Kenya to be used in projects like introducing solar lights to the community and…oh yes, that’s where we started.


Tajeu Ole Minisa (known as Richard) is the leader of the group. Born one of nine children, his father died when he was fourteen and his mother struggled to sell water and firewood in an effort to pay Tajeu’s school fees. In the end he had to leave school and after training as a warrior for one year, he went to help his mother drive out their cows to look for pastures. He supplemented any money they had by working as a night watchman. Realising that he had a gift as solo singer, he met with friends and saw the potential singing had to inspire people as they coped with poverty and hard times and to educate people on how to lead a more Christian life. Richard is married with three sons and he will be performing in the Abbey with Kamayet, Kesame,Lydia and Miriam.

The Warriors tour the UK each year performing their songs and tribal ceremonies and this year’s tour takes them from small village halls and community centres to Exeter Cathedral and Malmesbury Abbey on Saturday 3rd November at 7.30pm; tickets £7 (adults) and £3 (children) available at the Abbey bookshop on on the door on the night. The music is mesmerising and unforgettable – a spectacle, with a good heart, not to be missed.

Thursday 11 October 2012

Abbey October Diary

While we redevelop the Abbey website, which sadly doesn't have a diary page, we thought it might be helpful to have the monthly diary viewable here. 

Thursday 11th October
4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice
8pm                Café Theology

Friday 12th October
9am                Organ Practice
10.30am        Creative Response

Saturday 13th October
9am                Prayers
10am              Healing in the streets
10am-2pm     Possible ITV filming in the Abbey
3pm                Set Up/Rehearsal/Concert

Sunday 14th October
8am                1662 Holy Communion
10.30am        Harvest Holy Communion
4pm                Informal Worship & Junior Church
6.30pm          Choral Evensong (Harvest)

Monday 15th October
2.15pm          Prayers for Malmesbury School (St Aldhelm’s Chapel)
7pm                Malmesbury Singers Rehearsal

Tuesday 16th October
All week         Removal of carpet in South Aisle

Wednesday 17th October
10.30am         Holy Communion
7.30pm           Workers' Prayer

Thursday 18th October
4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice

Friday 19th October
9am                Organ Practice

Saturday 20th October
9am                Prayers
10am              Healing in the streets

Sunday 21st October
8am                1662 Holy Communion
10.30am        Holy Communion
4pm                Informal Worship & Junior Church

Monday 22nd October
All day            Portable Appliance Testing
7pm                Malmesbury Singers Rehearsal
  
Tuesday 23rd October
9.30am           Women Alive! (Le Flambé)
10-12pm        Malmesbury Primary School Harvest Service
2.30pm           Funeral

Wednesday 24th October
10.30am         Holy Communion
3pm                Renewal of Vows/Marriage Blessing

Thursday 25th October
10.30am         Funeral
1.30am-5pm  Servicing of Sound System
4pm                Evening Prayer
7pm                Choir Practice

Friday 26th October
All morning     Servicing of Sound System
10.30-12pm   Creative Response

Saturday 27th October
9am                Prayers
10am              Healing in the streets
  
Sunday 28th October
8am                Holy Communion
10.30am        Morning Prayer & Healing
4pm                Informal Worship & Interview
8pm                ((resonate))

Monday 29th October
7pm                Malmesbury Singers Rehearsal

Wednesday 31st October
10.30am         Holy Communion

Monday 1 October 2012

Dinner for Kigezi


‘All good things around us are sent from heaven above…’ The Harvest Festival season has arrived in North Wiltshire and churches are whipping out their harvest hymns and decorating the church with impressive home grown produce; (the pineapples last Sunday at St John the Baptist, Brokenborough perhaps suggesting that not everything is locally grown?) In truth this has been a tough harvest for our farmers so our gratitude to God for His provision has a fair dollop of relief served with it this year.

However, this Harvest at Malmesbury Abbey we are taking a different approach. We are asking you not to bring carrots or turnips, or old bicycles or mobiles as we have done in previous years (when we worked with Bikes4Africa and WaterAid.) This year, on Sunday October 14th, we want your dinner money. Fast for a meal and put the money you save in a Dinner for Kigezi envelope, or simply work out the cost of your family meal, or dinner at The Old Bell, and put the same amount in an envelope marked Dinner for Kigezi. Why?



As part of our diocesan link with the church in Uganda, the Deanery of North Wiltshire (our bit) is linked with the Diocese of Kigezi, based on the city of Kabale near the Rwanda/Ugandan border; I visited there last year (see above.) In the mountainous south west of Uganda access to water and sanitation is limited, and the diocese there has an outstanding project that is improving the general health of children and particularly the lives of girls and women who are no longer having to work daily long distances to fetch water. Alongside this there is an HIV education project running which provides safe water for those living with HIV. Through Tearfund we are becoming a connected church to this project over the next few years, and you can find out more about it at 

If you put your dinner money in an envelope from the Abbey and fill it in we can reclaim the tax through gift aid. Many thanks.