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Our focus this Lent has been n doing rather than reminding ourselves what we need to do. Not that we don’t usually do some of the things suggested in the booklet “Love life, live Lent”, like visiting a friend whom we haven’t seen for ages, or giving up an meal and giving the proceeds to those who have scarcely one meal a day.

The more difficult practical activity is prayer. We often talk about it, or read about it, but we tend to leave it to others to do. I commend the discovery sessions in church on Saturday mornings. We also have two need prayer times in church at 6.00p.m. on Tuesday to pray for peace, particularly in Afghanistan, and Thursday to pray for the wellbeing of creation. There are also times when you will be praying at home on your own.

One of these times may be devoted to the unity of the church, more especially the Anglican church. We are only a part of the “one, holy, catholic and apostolic church” – but we could be an encouragement to the church as a whole that, in spite of differences, there is a rock-like foundation to our togetherness.

The impression is often given that the church is falling apart – divisions caused for example by the decision of the General Synod to consecrate woman bishops. There are a number of Anglicans who have not accepted women in the ordained priesthood, and for whom separate provision was made in the original legislation. They would also want to have a separate jurisdiction under a male bishop and synod has decided against this. So some feel they are being side-lined. Some have made approaches to the Roman Catholic Church. The Pope has proposed a special arrangement – an ordinariate – to welcome these Anglicans and safeguard elements of their spirituality. What is not well understood is that this is not a move towards greater unity. Those who move into this ordinariate will need to become Roman Catholics, learn and accept the discipline of that church.

I am sure I have said this before, but what always saddens me in this controversy is that we will not look at the wider church and what is happening there. Women have been welcomed into the ordained priesthood for the past seventeen years. It would seem to me that far from weakening the church we have been enormously strengthened by the ministry of women. All the arguments against revolve around the fact that Jesus chose only men as his apostles or that St. Paul was quite unequivocal in stating that leadership in the church should be male. Surely after all the years, and the ordination of so many women, we would have been made aware if we were in error.

Years ago John Henry Newman left the Anglican church and converted to Roman Catholicism and a number of distinguished members of the church followed him, including Henry Wiberforce, brother of Samuel, then Rector of Alverstoke. Many did stay and we have a glimpse into why – a random description from a letter written by a friend of John Keble, an Anglican vicar and Oxford professor of Poetry, describing his life:

I sent the same to John Keble, a friend who is in great distress about faith and many controversies. He lived with John Keble for a month or two. John Keble said no word of controversy, but lived. And my friend’s faith was restored and his place in the Anglican Church was restored.

It is in those words “but lived” that the crisis was overcome, and we are now in this Lent challenged to live and offer a deeper togetherness.

Ted Goodyer

March 2010

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Just before Christmas a new film And did those feet was screened in London. According to a Church of Scotland minister Dr. Gordon Strachan in the film, Jesus may have visited England and have planted a church in Glastonbury. There was a certain amount of comment at the time both on the BBC and in the newspapers. A reviewer in a church paper said this:

“It would be a fun thing to believe. I want to believe it. But there are lots of things which I want to believe that simply aren’t true or even likely. It would not be surprising at all for there to be Roman soldiers who became Christians (like a centurion or two that we read about somewhere) and took the good news of Jesus to Glastonbury. It would not be surprising if they built an early church building and taught people that the real “builder” was Jesus, the foundation of our faith. It would be surprising for Jesus to go all the way to Glastonbury to learn from druids when as far as we know he didn’t go to Greece to learn from the mystery religions. Although one can draw some parallels between his teaching and that of the Cynics… the great majority of scholars today would argue that Jesus got his wisdom from Jewish scriptures. Could Jesus have visited England? Yes, but I suspect he might have stopped off at Athens first if the wisdom of God didn’t satisfy.”

We might well ask readers of this magazine what they think, and invite them to write and tell us what evidence they regard as compelling.

Since Lent begins this month – Ash Wednesday is on 17 February – it would be good to suggest that we might visit again the truth that Christ is present on this island. The opportunity will be there for all of us to demonstrate our faith in a practical way rather than simply talking about it. So there will be no study booklet or Lent groups. We are taking a break from these. Instead we are encouraging people to take part in a number of different activities. Firstly there will be the gathering for prayer. There will be a fortnight of guided prayer which commits those who take part to daily prayer and four meetings with a prayer guide to assist in developing our prayer life. Also in church there will be a number of different times to pray, some of which will be led, but on four Saturday mornings the church will be opens, and people can come to walk around the church stopping at various stations to spend time in prayer.  Each individual will decide on how much time they wish to devote to this.

There will also be a little booklet available “Love life, live Lent.” This offers a series things to do to demonstrate your love for God and neighbour. It has been prepared by the Archbishop of York and will be fun to do and sometimes a little startling to friends and strangers.

As always another practical demonstration of our concern for the welfare of others will be Christian Aid’s appeal “Minus a meal”. We give up a meal every other day, or once a week or now and then, put what we would have spent in an envelope and return it to the church. As I write I see on the television the people of Haiti desperate for food and water. The press might have moved elsewhere by the time your read this, but their need remains. They will probably have one a day for some time to come. It would be good to add to our initial response to their catastrophe in this way.

Whether or not Jesus came to Glastonbury, the life of the Christian community offers the best evidence for his presence with us now and his guidance in all we do. It would greatly encourage us all if this were recognised in Gosport generally.

Ted Goodyer

February 2010

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