dead records

It occurs to me that I owe my predecessor in the parish a debt of gratitude. I arrived to find that all the records - burials, marriages, & the like - that ere more than ten years old had been sent off to Dublin to the Church of Ireland's library. At first I was rather doubtful about the idea ... it is nice to be able to look through them and learn about the history of the parish. But over the course of the last year I've come to appreciate the wisdom of his decision. Every time someone calls to the door or phones or emails looking to track down an ancestor from 150 years ago or so I can put my hand on my heart and answer with all honesty that I can't help them & refer them on to the library.

That might sound a bit unhelpful. But truth be told I put in a lot of hours over the years doing that kind of work. You can put in a lot of hours going through dusty registers in cold, damp vestries trying to track down someone's dead relative ... especially when it turns out that they weren't buried in your graveyard in the first place! I learned quickly to ask why they thought their ancestor might be buried in one of our parish churchyards ... you wouldn't believe the amount of times that they had no reason whatsoever to think so ... they were just calling all the churches in the area, trying to cover all the bases ... and even if their family member was Catholic, calling the Church of Ireland clergy 'to be sure to be sure!' I don't mind helping ... I'm not as keen on wild goose chasing.

And  it is amazing the amount of people who show up on your door step from the other side of the world & knock on my door. They've spent months planning their trip to the 'auld sod' ... but it never occurred to them that it might be advisable to call in advance to see if the clergy might be able or available to help them out. I remember  one day when I had someone visiting from Australia, who was staying in Dublin, drive down to see me without calling first. 'What a pity,' I said 'All the records are in Dublin ...' I found out later they could have saved themselves the trip. Their ancestor wasn't in my churchyard. Hadn't even ever lived in the parish ...

Nope. Far better that the records are somewhere central. This genealogical stuff is too tangled for amateurs. Best leave it to the professionals. 

Prayer diary Tuesday 21 May 2013

Jesus said: 'Whoever wants to be first must be last of all and servant of all.' 

Mark 9.35

Reflection: 

Are these words that any want to hear in an age that thinks of everything in terms of rights and individual liberties? Yet our Lord spoke these words. We must not only hear them, but live them.

prayers for Pentecost

Let us pray: Heavenly Father, 

you promised through your Son 

to hear the prayers 

of those who ask in faith: 

At this time of Pentecost, 

we give thanks for the wondrous gift 

of Your Holy Spirit

that you gave your Church; 

open our hearts 

that we may be inspired 

to continue the work 

of bringing the faith to all the world; 

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer

At this time of Pentecost, 

we thank you for sharing your Holy Spirit with us; 

may we also share with others, 

not only of your Word, 

but from all you give us to provide for our daily needs; Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer

At this time of Pentecost, 

we remember how the disciples 

went out to share your Good News 

and how their small community grew as a result; 

help us to share our faith 

in word and example 

with all we meet 

that our communities may daily grow. 
Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer

At this time of Pentecost, 

we ask your blessing on all 

who have answered the call of your Spirit 

into the ministries of the Church; 

We pray for our bishops, priests, and deacons, 

and all who work in lay ministry. 

Strengthen us, and all your Church, 

to be One, as your Son prayed we should be One. 

Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer

At this time of Pentecost, 

we thank you for those 

who having been strong in the faith in this life 

have entered into their reward in the next; 

we ask your comfort for all who mourn; 

your strength for those who are ill and dying 

& for those who care for them; 

we pray for all who struggle financially 

at this difficult time; 

and we pray for all who struggle in their relationships, 

with others or with you. Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer

And at this time of Pentecost, 

we ask that you hear also the the prayers 

of our own hearts, 

for ourselves 

and for those we know 

to be in need of our prayers 

(pause for silent prayer) Lord in your mercy: hear our prayer
 

Merciful Father

accept these our prayers

for the sake of your Son

our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen.

Prayer diary Monday 20 May 2013

Immediately the father of the boy cried out 'I believe; help my unbelief!' 

Mk 9.24

Reflection: 

We all face doubts and uncertainties. Do not be discouraged by them. Instead, cry out to God to help you through those difficult times.

the power of Pentecost

May my words be in the name of the Holy & Undivided Trinity: Father, Son, & Holy Spirit. Amen.

For the last several Sundays our readings, as well as those for our mid-week services, have referenced the Holy Spirit either directly or indirectly. This has been, of course, in preparation for Pentecost, the day when we remember that first dramatic coming of the Holy Spirit to the Church as promised by Christ. Today we arrive at our destination; Pentecost is here … and perhaps, like anything to which there is a big build up, there is a bit of a sense of an anti-climax, a bit of a wondering what all the fuss has been about …

Maybe because that's because it's a little bit hard to get our heads around the idea of what it meant for the early Church to have the Holy Spirit descend at Pentecost. Christ promised it; it came. What's the big deal? Christ always keeps his promises. But any lack of wonder we may have comes from looking at the event down a 2000 year long microscope, so to speak; and from our end, with all the results of what flowed from the coming of the Holy Spirit not only in place, but long, long established, it can all seem a touch inevitable, static even … so perhaps we should do a bit of 'compare and contrast' as the dreaded phrase had it on exam papers … which were, for some of us at least, long, long ago!

The thing to do, I think, is to look at what was happening with the disciples before Pentecost and then after.

Well, before, there wasn't all that much going on, was there? As far as we can make out they spent most of their time hiding out in that upper room in Jerusalem. They did, obedient to Christ's command, travel to Galilee to witness the Ascension, but other than that, timidity seems to have ruled. They certainly seem to have been filled with joy at the news of Christ's resurrection, and at having witnessed the Risen Lord, but that joy doesn't seem to have translated itself into any kind of confidence. They were still afraid of what the Jews might do to them, that they might be arrested, tortured, and executed just as Christ was. The fact that Christ rose from the dead doesn't seem to have taken that fear away … 

Perhaps they felt that it was one thing for the Son of God to come back from the dead, but they were ordinary people and once they were dead they were dead, especially once Jesus had returned to heaven and there was no chance of his doing a 'Lazarus' on them! Look at how the disciples decided to chose a successor to Judas – they didn't even have the confidence to make a decision themselves; but instead made their choice by casting lots.

What was the future for such a Church? Well I doubt we would be sitting here today in one of the world's literally hundreds of thousands of churches that provides sacred spaces for over two billion Christians. At best they might have struggled on for a few years, perhaps earning themselves a foot-note in the history books that none but the most dedicated scholars would have heard of. Sitting behind locked doors shivering doesn't often translate itself into a force that changes the world.

But see how things changed after Pentecost. Peter – who had been ready to hang up the 'gone fishing' sign and head back to Galilee and stay there only a few days earlier - is now bursting out onto the streets like a roaring lion. All the disciples who had been cowering behind closed doors come running out with him. The people who had been making themselves as small and quiet as possible 'for fear of the Jews' are now boldly proclaiming the message of Christ crucified for our sins to all those passing on the street … people from every corner of the world!

All timidity was gone. Scared peasants were now courageous soldiers of Christ, willing to die for the faith. In fact, we know that many of them did die … of the 12 apostles, all bar John was to die a martyrs death. But even being picked off one by one didn't discourage them … the transformation that took place in that room was a permanent one … and its permanency was not limited to those inside the room that day of Pentecost … with leaps and bounds Christianity grew and grew … within a few decades the Church was bigger than Judaism … within a couple of centuries it was the biggest single religion in the Roman Empire … and a couple of centuries after that it was pretty much the only religion in the Roman Empire … from there it has spread out throughout all the world, reaching places unheard of and un-imagined on the day of Pentecost so that today there are, as I said, over two billion Christians world wide …

And it achieved that because the power of Pentecost was not limited to that room on that day … it continues to pour out into the world and into the Church and into our lives … and it is a power that we should welcome into our lives daily … because the work of Pentecost, fueled by the never ending power of the Holy Spirit, is not over … two billion down leaves four billion more to go in terms of evangelisation … and of that two billion, how many need to be re-evangelised? But we need not fear … just as those in the upper room that day discovered they need not fear … the power Pentecost continues … and I pray that you will allow the Holy Spirit into your lives, this day and into the future, so that you may do your share of God's work, just as those disciples did so long ago on the first feast of Pentecost. Amen.

Good luck Ireland!

The powers that be in the Eurovsion have chosen to place Ireland's entry, Only Love Survives sung by Ryan Dolan, as the final number in the competition's running order. It can't hurt our chances to be the last song ringing in people's ears before they hit the phone lines to vote!

The only question is, do the powers that be in Ireland really want the cost and headache of hosting the contest next year ...

Prayer diary 18 May 2013 (day of prayer & preparation)

There are also many other things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. 

John. 21.25

Reflection: 

The evangelist reminds us that there is more to Christ than can be contained in any number of books. Christ himself promised that he would send his Holy Spirit that would guide us, his Church, into all Truth.