Vicar's Bit For October
Cracking up
Our house (the Rectory) is cracking up. Built in 1955 you would think it is well passed the time for having subsidence. But 2025 has been a record dry year. Land to the east of us, normally boggy wet in the winter, is really dry. Rock hard ground. Or maybe the cause is the building site on Over Old Rd… The diocesan surveyor is on the case.
This morning I went up (twice) the tower of Maisemore Church. The digital signal equipment on the tower has to be checked occasionally. Apart from ringing bells, and the village weather-vane, this is one of the few practical uses a church tower can be put. Churches are spiritually symbolic buildings; practical they are not. And being as old as they are, subsidence rarely matters any more.
Hasfield Church, this last year, has suffered from damp – and so the church guttering has been transformed. Ashleworth Church is having the spire repaired this coming year, a very costly process. Tirey Church is putting in higher flood defences. Staunton Church is needing a wall repair and money spent on the church organ.
My home cracking up made me reflect on all of this. My son told me that in 1955 the Rectory was built on sand, not rock, a bit like the Church of England (see Matthew 7.24ff). I’m less sure that is the problem. Your vicar is not to blame for my Rectory cracking up, or Ashleworth Church needing a refurbished spire, or Staunton Church’s crumbly wall. Time and global warming, the strange weather we are having, has played its part… maybe we all have contributed towards the warming of the planet. So I’m living in a home which is telling me the world is distressed. We are all cracking up. Church buildings too.
And this is expensive. Thankfully, we all generously collectively reach for our purse.
For me the person inside the building matters more than the building itself. St Paul twice commends ‘building up’ each other. “Say what it useful for building up” he writes in Ephesians 4.29, and “knowledge puffs up, love builds up” he suggests in 1 Corinthians 8.1. If Jesus’ word is the foundation, the rock on which we build anything in this uncertain world of ours, this world so full of multiple crises and hateful words; let us continue to build each other up too. Yes, build each other up on the love of Jesus, by building each other up with loving thoughtful words.
Wedding/Baptism in October – Congratulations!
Hartpury Church 3pm on Saturday 4th October, the wedding of Jamie Scott and Elizabeth Bailey.
Staunton Church 2pm on Sunday 5th October, the baptism of Maggie Holdam, parents Georgie and Jack.
October Harvest Festivals
Corse Church October 12th at 9.30am
Hasfield Church October 12th at 12.15pm (with lunch afterwards)
Tirley Church October 19th at 6pm (with Tea before at 5pm)
Hartpury Church October 26th at 6pm