Rev. Mindy’s Meanderings

Now I don’t know Mark Rowland personally (though I do hope to make his acquaintance when we both reside in the same country), but I recently read what he wrote on the Candler Admissions blog. I found his comparative perspective on Methodist church life in the US and UK fascinating. Mark is a ministerial student in the British Methodist system and just spent a year as an international student at Candler School of Theology, which is part of Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. I do know a number of American United Methodist seminary grads who are now serving in the UK and with these folks I occasionally compare notes. However, prior to Mark’s article I haven’t often had an opportunity to hear from folks whose travels have been a mirror reflection of mine by their heading in the opposite direction “across the pond”.

Mark’s story is particularly interesting to me because his travels in the opposite direction closely mirror my journey. For those of you who don’t know, just prior to moving to the UK I graduated from the very same Candler School of Theology with a Master of Divinity degree. The M.Div is a three-year full-time program and for my last two years there I worked for the Office of Student Programming as the international student coordinator. Thus I was in close contact with many of Candler’s international students during my seminary days. These two bits of my background combined with my current experience of British Methodism makes me very interested in Mark’s perspective. If you too are interested in a comparative perpective on Methodist church life in the US and UK I encourage you to follow the link. Enjoy Mark’s article!

A good time was had by all! The consensus opinion is that the weekend of celebratory events in the Milton Keynes Circuit last weekend went very well. Thanks to all of you who helped out in all kinds of ways to make the special celebrations possible. I will be posting more later and sharing some of the highlights of Saturday and Sunday in photos. However to tide you over till I have time to do that, I thought I would share the link to the blog of the President and Vice President of Methodist Conference. On it Ruby Beech, the Vice President of Methodist Conference, wrote about the various activities in which she was invovled in her weekend in the Northampton District. The Sunday morning service in Stony Stratford is featured in her write-up, both in words and picture. Follow the link and enjoy!

We have much to celebrate and you are invited to join us. On Sunday the 18th of May, members of Stony Stratford, Hanslope, and Deanshanger Methodist Churches are gathering together with others to celebrate. These are some of the things we will be celebrating:

• the planting of a “new” Wesley tree* on the Market Square in Stony Stratford
• the visit of the Vice-President of Methodist Conference (the elected lay leader of British Methodists for the year 2008), Mrs. Ruby Beech, to dedicate the “new” Wesley tree
• Rev. John Wesley’s leadership of our Sunday service (John Wesley, 1703-1791, was the founder of the Methodist movement and will be portrayed by actor Mark Topping.)
• Hanslope Methodist Church’s 180th Anniversary
• Stony Stratford Methodist Church’s Anniversary
• the long and faithful history of the people called Methodist in the life of our communities.

The above picture was taken on the occasion of the planting of the “new” Wesley tree. It is this tree that will be dedicated on the 18th of May. The following is the list and location of festivities on Sunday the 18th of May. We are pleased that the mayor-elect and members of the Stony Stratford town council will be joining us. You are welcome to join us for any or all of the festivities no matter if your interest is local history, Methodism, trees, Christian worship or any other reason.

10:00 am Worship Service @ Russell Street School

11:00 am Procession to the Wesley Tree, Market Square

11:15-ish Dedication of the Wesley tree & unveiling of the plaque by Mrs. Ruby Beech

11:45 am Tea, Coffee, & Cake in the Stony Stratford Methodist Church Hall, Silver Street

12:15 pm Address by Mrs. Ruby Beech in Stony Stratford Methodist Church Sanctuary, Silver Street

The parking nearest to Russell Street School is in the two public lots on Vicarage Road (which can be accessed from either Russell Street or Ostlers Lane). From those parking lots it is just a short walk to the school, the square, and the church.

* It is called the Wesley Tree because Rev. John Wesley preached from under this tree at least once on his travels through Stony Stratford. He didn’t have access to churches to preach in so he preached in ordinary places where people were gathered, to share with them the message of God’s love and forgiveness. The old tree which J. Wesley preached under died as a result of Dutch Elm Disease.

Additional Opportunity:

Saturday, May 17th at 7pm Hanslope Methodist Church will celebrate it’s 180th Chapel Anniversary with Mark Topping portraying John Wesley. John Wesley will be arriving by horse and will then tell us about his life and work. I have seen the show before; I can report it is a fascinating show and transports one back in time. The program for this evening will be entirely different than that in the following morning, so feel free to come to both events. Tickets are £5 each and available at the door. Hanslope Methodist Church is on High Street in the village of Hanslope next to the Chinese take away.

On a Friday in March, youth from the north side of the Methodist Circuit gathered for a deviation from our regular Youth “Movie” Night. We didn’t watch a movie; instead, after gathering around a bring and share meal, we used symbols to tell the story of the journey to Easter and then finished with a craft project.

I was impressed by the serious though and contemplation that was given by the youth to the events leading to Easter and Easter itself. We laid out the symbols to tell the story in chronological order (as documented in the picture) then read the story from the Bible to make sure we had told it correctly. We had! Then we discussed which part of the story spoke to us in a special way. Then we closed in prayer before adjourning to the table to make Easter bonnet refrigerator magnets. A good time was had by youth and adults alike.

I hope you too were able to take some time to prepare for Easter. Our patterns of life allow us to easily jump from the celebration of Palm Sunday to the celebration of Easter, bypassing the difficult days in between. I find it important to live through these intervening days of Holy Week in order to more fully understand Christian hope and the promise of new life. When we don’t live through Good Friday it is easy to forget that the new life of the resurrection follows death, it doesn’t bypass death.

In the midst of the sorrow of Holy Week we can also find comfort that the muck of life (pain, violence, betrayal, greed, etc.) is also known by God. Jesus the Christ experienced the fullness of life, the muck and the celebrations, just like we do. Jesus’ intimately knows the worst life can hold and can related to our own very human difficulties following his command to love God and neighbour.

At the end of the two Good Friday services I led, I closed with this poem written by Gregory of Nazianzus in 381 AD.

Who was Jesus?

He began His ministry by being hungry, yet He is the Bread of Life.

Jesus ended His earthly ministry by being thirsty, yet He is the Living Water.

Jesus was weary, yet He is our rest.

Jesus paid tribute, yet He is the King.

Jesus was accused of having a demon, yet He cast out demons.

Jesus wept, yet He wipes away our tears.

Jesus was sold for thirty pieces of silver, yet He redeemed the world.

Jesus was brought as a lamb to the slaughter, yet He is the Good Shepherd.

Jesus died, yet by His death He destroyed the power of death.