Vicar's Bit For May
A Change in the Weather
During Compline we pray:
Be present, O merciful God,
and protect us through the silent hours of this night,
so that we who are wearied
by the changes and chances of this fleeting world,
may rest upon your eternal changelessness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
“The changes and chances of this fleeting world…” Farmers are much in my prayers as I write. Last year there were five months when Tirley Church was effected by the endless rain. As a result farmers were not able to plant their autumn crops in their muddy fields. There has been a change in the weather. All of April and well into May it hasn’t rained. Fields of spring crops have not germinated. Poor farmers.
“The changes and chances of this fleeting world…” And we are experiencing a political change of the weather across the world too. On May 4th we shall celebrate 80 years since Victory Europe Day (11am Ashleworth Church). Even during the war, an international rules based system was being set up to prevent another European dictator emerging. These days we cannot be sure, either military or economically, whether the great nations, and the fleeting chancers who lead some of them, will play by the sensible rules of the post war world; arrangements and institutions set up after anguished reflection, three-quarters of a century ago.
At the end of May we move from Easter to Pentecost (June 8th). There is a change in the weather of the Christian year. Our Easter season’s focus on the risen Lord changes to the wind of the Spirit blowing, and the fire of the Spirit burning, in the church. We do not lose Easter’s grace and joy. At Pentecost grace and joy is magnified. There is no change is in what God is doing; the transformation is in us through our encounter with our risen Lord and the power of God’s Spirit. God’s love in Jesus Christ is constant; as Jesus ascends to the Father, his love for us does not change one jot. Nor does the power of his prayers for his church in the world.
Across our Benefice, May is a very merry month:
On May 7th, 12.30pm at Tirley Church, we celebrate the first wedding of the year, of Steven Oakley and Kirsty Barnes.
On May 11th, 11am at Hartpury Church, we celebrate the Baptism of Lola Farmer, her parents are Joseph and Jessica.
On Saturday May 10th, 2-5pm at Staunton and Corse Village Hall, the Benefice celebrates the arts and crafts of about 20 parishioners. Followed at 7pm the Cotswold Male Voice Choir entertain us there. Please do buy tickets (£3 for 2pm, £12 for 7pm).
On May 25th, 6pm at the Orchard Centre, we hold our annual outdoor Rogationtide service. Lots of outdoor fun.
And then joyfully on Ascension Day, Thursday 29th May 7pm at Tirley Church, we celebrate heaven rejoicing at all that Christ has done for us on earth. We celebrate God’s changeless, constant love for our ever changing world.