A blessed Christmas to you all

A few days ago I heard a clip from the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, who was reflecting on the first verse of the gospel of St John  – “In the beginning was the word”

The few words I caught were his reflection suggesting that maybe it was not so much that creation began with a word but with a song.

I have thought about this over the last few days in the run up to this morning, a song whose melody and echo reverberates through the ages and in the Christmas story a new harmony is created within the original score.

Christmas of course is a time of song – Carols have been piped in lifts, shopping malls and high streets since October, sung outside blocks of flats and in homes, remembered in the half light of churches amidst candles and accompanied by the aroma of mulled wine and warm mince pies.

The Carols of course tell the story, tell of that little town of Bethlehem, that Royal city where there stood a lowly cattle shed. Their melodies remind us of shepherds who watched their flock by night and three kings from orient far, their words speak of that midnight clear, that glorious song of old; and that amid the woes of sin and strife the love song the angels sing.

But as song, as the song we are reminded that Christmas is, amidst the tinsel and tea towels of a thousand nativities, a love song. A love story with a prequel that takes us not to a distant galaxy far away but to the very beginning of time when God spoke into the void of nothingness “Let there be light” - let there be love, let there be a wonderful and complex world in which all creation can hear the song of Gods love in the earth, land, sea and the very dust of our being. The Christmas story is another chapter in this amazing story, a central aria within this grand Opera where the center stage is Bethlehem and a stable in which God choose to be born, born of a woman.

So around the world the song is once again sung, but it does seem that more and more people are asking, as the psalmist asked long ago “ How can we sing the Lords song in a strange land”.

In a country as diverse as we now are it is a question that many are asking. Some think the answer is to reduce the wonder of Christmas to a winter fest; a winter wonder land of bright and shinny, but ultimately faux and false, promises. False snow, ever cheaper party food and even a channel on my sky package called The Christmas channel with back to back films with Christmas in the story line.

It was rather refreshing this year to see the advert put out by the Muslim Council of Britain this year

“Keep Calm it Christmas : Don’t panic Christmas is not banned”

Let us therefore not be afraid to join in this amazing love story, to become a part of its narrative to allow ourselves to be caressed by this love song from God.

let us rejoice that God so loved the world that he sent us his son, not out of wrath that needed satisfying, or out of some cosmic sense of duty but because of love – a love that knows each one of us by name if we are prepared to acknowledge the name of Jesus.

The past two thousand years since the birth of Christ can be viewed as a relentless round of greed and violence, fear and insecurity of greed and violence and death to the love song sung by the angels. But the truth of the matter is that there is still an incredible energy in the world that flows from generosity of God. I think we saw that acknowledged in the reaction of every nation and maybe every human being at news of the death of Nelson Mandela a few weeks ago.

The Christmas story, the Creators love song, cannot and will not be silenced, and the beauty of both is that even when we feel that we have no voice, or that we have lost the will to sing or cannot remember the words, others will lift their voices and sing and the song will touch us and inspire us as the Love of God revealed in that stable long ago continues to do so today.

May God bless you all this Christmas and may the message of the angels resound in your hearts…

with peaceful wings unfurled;

and still their heavenly music floats

over all the weary world:

above its sad and lowly plains

they bend on hovering wing;

and ever over its Babel- sounds

the blessed angels sing.

Barnet Refugee Service End of Year Party

This afternoon, St Matthias Hall hosted the Barnet Refugee Service End of Year Party, providing festive food and entertainment for lots of children. Volunteers from our church, along with people from a local synagogue, secular groups, and others helped get the hall ready and tidy up. Des from St John's did sterling work as Santa Claus!

Here we see Father John joining battle with a balloon sword:

Barnet Refugee Service provide vital support for refugees and asylum seekers in Barnet and neighbouring boroughs, and are based just up the road from St Matthias Church. You can help their work in various ways; see here.

We are hoping to begin a food collection for the Service at St Matthias in the new year. More details to follow!

Christmas Mass Times - Colindale and West Hendon

MIDNIGHT MASS (24th DEC) - 11:30pm

DAYTIME MASS (25th DEC) - 10am

At both churches.

There will also be short crib services, aimed at children,
at 6pm on December 24th.

St John's, Algernon Rd, NW4

St Matthias, Rushgrove Avenue, NW9

Have a merry Christmas!

SMSJ. Carol concert

A wonderful re telling of the Christmas story with traditional carols and the choir performed " when love came down" reminding us that the Christmas story is a. A love story between God and humanity.

West Hendon Pre school nativity

The children put on an amazing nativity to a full church

The Second Part of Advent

Today we enter the second part of Advent, preparing more urgently to celebrate the coming of Christ at Christmas.

During the next seven days, the Church's prayer focuses on the longing of God's people for the promised Kingdom, and on the hope of all people of good will for a world of justice and peace. We enter into the often tragic reality of the world, but we do so on the basis of hope: "Emmanuel shall come to thee, O Israel".

Gaudete Sunday - Rejoice!

Today, the 3rd Sunday of Advent, is sometimes known as Gaudete, or rejoicing Sunday.

It has a more relaxed feel than the other Sundays in Advent. In some places rose coloured vestments are worn, and we ourselves lit the rose coloured candle on our Advent wreath.

Advent is a time for rejoicing - not for a superficial happiness, but for a fundamental joy that sustains us through the difficult times in life. As Christians, we know that history is in God's hands, that Christ will return and fulfil the promises of his Kingdom. Our joy is the joy of people who know that they are loved, and that their Beloved will not abandon then.

So, rejoice!

Nativity play at Colindale primary school

120 children from year 1 at Colindale primary school retell the Christmas story. Clearly new research has uncovered lost sources that st Matthew and st Luke were not aware of, for example "the grumpy sheep"-brilliant 

Reflection for the Second Sunday in Advent

As we continue celebrating Advent, inevitably our thoughts and prayers this morning also focused on Nelson Mandela, praying that he might come to share forever in the life of God our liberator.

It is very interesting to see how the media and various public figures have reacted to Mandela's death. There has been a lot of talk about Mandela's commitment to forgiveness and reconciliation. And that was undoubtedly part of his legacy, and one which as Christians we celebrate. But Mandela realised, in a way I am not convinced that all his obiturists do, that genuine forgiveness is hard won. Forgiveness is not cheap; rather for him it occurred on the other side of a life involving taking sides against injustice, suffering, persecution, struggle, and victory. In the same way, of course, the forgiveness we all need comes to us through a life, through the blood of the Cross, and through the triumph of the empty tomb. There is nothing glib here, nothing that allows us to cover up injustice, or the need to oppose it, with premature appeals to forgiveness. The prophet Jeremiah denounces those who "cry 'peace, peace' when there is no peace".

It is the less comfortable, more confrontational side to Mandela in which I am interested. In standing up for justice in the face of power exercised for injustice, he echoes the prophetic tradition of the Old Testament. The prophets were not - as we sometimes are in danger of thinking - holy fortune tellers. Rather, they dealt solidly and squarely with the here-and-now of the real world, telling - often quite bluntly - God's people, especially their rulers, when they were falling away from their relationship with God by damaging the poor and the oppressed.

The Church - and that means all of us - needs to continue this prophetic work in our own day. It is part of what we have been baptised to do.

But nor should we get too comfortable, spending all of our time pointing out wrong doing in others (however necessary that might be when those others have the power to oppress and exploit) without ever turning our critical attention on ourselves. In today's gospel one of the central characters of Advent, the great prophet St John the Baptist, turns on some of God's People, the Sadduccees and Pharisees, calling them a 'brood of vipers' and warning them not to appeal to their special status as God's People. Because, after all, God doesn't need them. God could make new children for Abraham out of stone. They need to repent.

And what about us? It is no good us sitting smugly and imagining that as the Church we are somehow privileged. God no more needs us than he needed the Pharisees and Sadduccees. How are we failing to live God's children? How are we complicit in injustice and oppression? What are the hypocrisies of which we need to repent? Those questions force themselves upon us during Advent and we should each of us spend time thinking about them, and then turn back to the Lord who wants to forgive us.

Drop down, ye heavens from above; and let the clouds rain the Just One.

Advent Sunday - some practical suggestions for a Holy Advent

So what things can we do in Advent to help us watch for the presence of God in our lives?

Fr Tony shared some ideas for this Advent to keep Christ in the middle of our homes and families and at the front of our minds every day, making it a daily habit, during Advent:

Ø Lighting an Advent candle – or any candle for that matter – and burning it gradually every day during Advent – perhaps for 5 minutes or during a meal. The light of the living flame of the candle reminding us of the light of Christ.

Ø Opening the doors of an Advent calendar every day leading up to Christmas Day can be another habit, perhaps with a short time for prayer, reminds us we are keeping close to God in Advent

Ø Set up your Christmas Crib with an empty manger – as a sign that during Advent we are awaiting the coming of the Lord – with the infant Jesus being placed in the manger after Midnight Mass on Christmas morning.

Ø Find moments for prayer during the day – perhaps going for a short walk or using your time on the tube or bus as a time of prayer, trying to be aware of God around us.

Ø Or get into the habit at the end of each day of spending 3 minutes prayerfully reflecting on the day that is passing – giving thanks for the gift of life; thinking about when in the day you felt that God was most close to you and asking God to show you those situations when you were not living as God wants.

A few ideas for Advent – you don’t need to do them all of course! – but I would encourage you to try something – to do something different for Advent – that becomes a daily habit and a reminder of God with you.

Kilimanjaro in review

Thank you to everyone who sponsored me for climbing kilimanjaro in Tanzania in November. It was a truly unforgettable experience - deeply terrifying at times, wonderfully amazing at others and in all of those days a deep thanks to God.

Here are some images

all this for five of us! all carried by the  porters up the mountain

our camp above the clouds on the way up

Kilimanjaro from the lowlands - snow was added during our climb

Mawenzi  after a night of snow and hail

View of Kilimanjaro after some snow the day before we assaulted the summit 

Yes this small tent is what you think it is - a room with a view

protea in the wild

It took a great deal longer to go up than come down!

Vegetation changes according to the hight of the mountain

our amazing porters and guides

Pilgrim through this barren Land....

taking in the view

At the summit with Ernest the SMSJ school bear 

All this raises money for the BLMF - too cold for the diocesan tee-shirt

Kilimanjaro orchid

Mighty Mawenzi

coming down through the rain forest on the last day

Christ the King

There were good reasons to look forward to this weekend: it is the great feast of Christ the King today, and locally we had the privilege of baptising baby Olivia Kosisochukwu Ejim into membership of the Church at St Matthias this morning.

For me, another thing hotly anticipated was the 50th anniversary Dr Who, The Day of the Doctor, broadcast yesterday (and on i-player here until 1st December). In the run-up to this there had been all sorts of press speculation about the contents, numerous programmes about Dr Who on the telly, and a definite buzz on social media. Dr Who has become popular, which is both pleasing and odd for someone like me who liked it as a child, at a time when this was deeply unfashionable.

Why is this peculiar sci-fi drama suddenly so trendy? Why were people without an ounce of the geek about them glued to their TV screens yesterday evening? One reason, I think, is that the new version of Doctor Who presents us with companions to the Doctor who are very much like us, ordinary people, who you can imagine meeting on any bus or tube train. Unlike the cardboard characters from the old version, these companions have depth, they have families, relationships, loves, and hates. And these things matter, and continue to matter after the companions meet the Doctor. These ordinary people get taken into absolutely extraordinary situations: exploring time and space, meeting species, planets, cultures, and realities beyond our wildest imaginings. This appeals to us: it speaks to an urge to explore, to cross boundaries, to live live fully and richly, to - as I said - be extraordinary, whilst still remaining the ordinary people we are.

Now, at the risk of sounding like the worst sort of preacher in the entire world ever - the sort of person who talks about something which has nothing whatsoever to do with the Christian faith, and then throws in the casual line "Jesus is a bit like..." ("Jesus is a bit like football", "Jesus is a bit like spaghetti bolognese") - the Christian Church is in the business of making the ordinary extraordinary. Today's feast celebrates Christ the Universal King, the king of everything, Lord of all that exists. This man from Nazareth, killed by the Roman Empire, possesses an empire of which Caesar could only ever dream - an empire extending over everything that is, everything that has been, and everything that ever will be. Yet it is not an empire built on conquest and oppression, but one built out of love, the love of God victorious on the Cross.

Christ, the ordinary man who is also God, does not simply reign over us. He invites us to reign with him. We, children of God by God's grace, come to share in Christ's reign, not only for this life, but eternally. To share, that is, in absolutely everything that matters. And if that is not a case of the ordinary being made extraordinary, I don't know what is. It is certainly what we claimed for our new Christian today through baptism.

In one of my favourite Dr Who episodes, a character with the fabulous name of Elton Pope says this,

When you're a kid, they tell you it's all grow up, get a job, get married, get a house, have a kid, and that's it. No, the truth is the world is so much stranger than that, so much darker, and so much madder. And so much better!

To which the only Christian response is 'Amen'.

Remembrance Sunday 10th November

Remember Me
(The voice of the dead)



Remember me


Duty called and I went to war


Though I'd never fired a gun before


I paid the price for your new day


As all my dreams were blown away



Remember me


We all stood true as whistles blew
And faced the shell and stench of Hell


Now battle's done, there is no sound
Our bones decay beneath the ground


We cannot see, or smell, or hear


There is no death, or hope or fear



Remember me


Once we, like you, would laugh and talk


And run and walk and do the things that you all do


But now we lie in rows so neat


Beneath the soil, beneath your feet



Remember me


In mud and gore and the blood of war


We fought and fell and move no more


Remember me, I am not dead


I'm just a voice within your head

Harry Riley

All Souls Day

Today is All Souls Day. Mass will be celebrated for all the departed at both of our churches at 12 noon.

Welcome, Lord, into your calm and peaceful kingdom those who, out of this present life, have departed to be with you; grant them rest and a place with the spirits of the just; and give them the life that knows not age, the reward that passes not away.

Amen

All Saints Day

Happy feast day! Today the Church celebrates our fellowship with the saints in glory.  As Christians we don't simply 'remember' the saints, looking to them as past examples of Christian life, from whom we can learn. This is important, of course, but it's by no means the whole story. Rather, we believe that the souls of the saints continue to pray for us, and exist in fellowship with us. They are our heavenly family, our friends, who encourage us onwards in our journey through life.

Reflection for the 20th Sunday After Trinity

"Thanks be to God", "let us give thanks to the Lord our God" - the language of thanksgiving permeates the Church's worship, as it does the prayer life of many Christians. When we say grace, for example, we give thanks for our food. Today's gospel reading picks up the theme of thanksgiving - the Samiritan leper cured by Jesus gives thanks for his healing.

Saying thank-you is an essential part of our lives as Christians, and we should make deliberate efforts to include thanksgiving in our daily prayer. This is not because God needs our thanks, or relies on it, or gets upset if we don't say 'thank you', as though God were like one of those people who only does good things for others to get thanks, audibly huffing if no thanks is forthcoming. Rather we need to thank God, because as we get into the habit of doing so, we are transformed.

As we become people who regularly give thanks we train ourselves, with the help of God's grace, to see the world in a new way. We learn to see the world for what it really is, a gift of God, given out of love. And to recognise the world as this is to recognise ourselves as loved by God, and so to be open to receive more fully from him.

The Feast of our Lady of Walsingham

Today the Church in this country celebrates Mary under the title of Our Lady of Walsingham.

Many people in our congregations have a strong attachment to the shrine at Walsingham in Norfolk. In particular, every year a group of young people from our churches go on the Walsingham Youth Pilgrimage.

To find out more about the shrine, see the website here. You might like to consider joining the Society of Our Lady of Walsingham here.

O Mary, recall the solemn moment when Jesus, your divine son, dying on the cross, confided us to your maternal care. You are our mother, we desire ever to remain your devout children. let us therefore feel the effects of your powerful intercession with Jesus Christ. make your name again glorious in the shrine once renowned throughout England by your visits, favours, and many miracles.

Pray, O holy mother of God, for the conversion of England, restoration of the sick, consolation for the afflicted, repentance of sinners, peace to the departed.

O blessed Mary, mother of God, our Lady of Walsingham, intercede for us.

Amen.

Reflection for the 17th Sunday after Trinity

Today's gospel presents us with a stark choice: you cannot serve both God or wealth.

Why not?

The problem with wealth is that it gets hold of us and takes control of our lives, not just individually, but as communities, as a society. This is particularly obvious in a capitalist society of the sort that we inhabit. Our whole way of life is dominated by making money for people - relatively few people, it should be said, although that is not the only problem with the situation we find ourselves in. Everything else comes second to making money. Education, family, leisure, the worship of God and the fellowship of his Church - all of these things have to slot into whatever gaps are left after work and the pursuit of profit have had their share of our lives.

More than that, we are taught from childhood onwards to want wealth, to desire it. But the thing is, no matter how much we have, we're taught, we're formed, to want more and more and more. Nothing is ever enough: wealth ceases to be a means to an end, becomes an end in itself. Money, created by human beings, ends up ruling human beings. Our livelihoods, our food and shelter, our sense of who we are and our worth is entirely at the mercy of something we ourselves have made.

But look at what has happened here - we, who were created to have our desires fulfilled by the endless love of God (today's collect echoes Saint Augustine, "our hearts are restless until they find rest in you"), endlessly desire wealth which can never fulfil us. We, who have been given dominion by God over creation, are controlled by something of our own making.

Wealth acts as a false god. It has a dynamic of its own, which takes hold of us and which prevents us from living with God, whose service, as Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer puts it, is perfect freedom. Wealth entraps us, enslaving us to its dominating worship at the expense of the liberating service of the God and Father of Jesus Christ.

This cannot be acceptable. We were created for something better than this and have, through Jesus Christ, already been set free from the sin of which this idolatry of wealth is a particularly glaring form. As Christians we have promised at our baptism to serve God rather than wealth. We need to learn how to do this on a day-by-day basis. This is a slow and painful process, as we - under God's grace - gradually lose the old way of seeing the world, focused on the accumulation of wealth, and learn instead to see the world in the light of the gospel.

Bit by bit we can refocus our desires and our attitudes, away from the wealth-orientated views of our newspapers and television screen - the views that blame the poor for their own plight whilst praising wealth, that reduce the infinite worth of human beings, created in the image and likeness of God, to a bank balance - towards the vision of the gospel, for which the world is a free gift of a loving God, who wills that "everyone be saved.. and come to knowledge of the truth", and in whose Kingdom the hungry are fed and the poor lifted up. Through receiving the sacraments, prayer, the study of scripture, learning about our faith, and Christian fellowship, we can learn to see the world anew, to desire anew.

And who knows, maybe then we might show those around us that there is something better on offer than the world we presently inhabit.

Poetry at St Matthias

Trevor reading a poem

Down at St Matthias vicarage we enjoyed listening to Trevor Potter, a member of our congregation, reading some poems on Friday night. Trevor read some of his own work, as well as various pieces by other writers.

We are very fortunate that Trevor made his talents available to our church community. If you would like to read some of his poems for yourself, he has a blog here.

Rainbow Kids Club in Colindale

One of the lovely things about St Matthias is the number of local community groups that use our halls.

Recently, Gifty and Vicky have started up Rainbow Kids Club, an after-school club for primary age children, at St Matthias hall.

If you are interested in making use of this club, email them!

Reflection for the 16th Sunday after Trinity

"Which one of you, having a hundred sheep and losing one of them, does not leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the one that is lost until he finds it?"

In today's gospel we are given the images of a shepherd seeking out a solitary lost sheep and of a woman searching the house for a lost coin.

Given by Jesus in response to criticism of his mixing with 'sinners', these images present him as valuing every person to such an extent that he will seek them out when they are lost.

Every single person on this planet is of incomparable worth because they are valued by God. As Christians, we have to believe that about others - we cannot sign up for any way of thinking about, or acting towards, people which sees them as dispensable, in the cause of 'the Economy', 'the greater good', 'the Nation' or whatever.

But we also have to believe it about ourselves, which can sometimes be difficult. We are loved by God, we are valuable, we are worthwhile. Whatever others, the world around us, or we ourselves might try to say about us, nothing can change that. And nothing we do, nothing we are, can separate us from the love of God in Christ. Jesus, who seeks out the lost sheep, is always there to welcome us home - a reality we celebrate in the sacrament of confession.

Confirmation - 5th January 2014

Bishop Peter will be visiting St Matthias for the 11am Mass on the Feast of the Epiphany, Sunday 5th January 2014. He will celebrate the sacrament of confirmation. Candidates from both St Matthias and St John will be confirmed.

Confirmation is one of the sacraments of the Church, the great signs of God's love that give us God's grace to live as Christians. Confirmation strengthens us by the gift of the Holy Spirit to lead adult Christian lives. In our tradition, it is usually given to older children or adults.

If you have not been confirmed and would like to be, or are interested in finding out more, please contact Father Simon. We will be be running confirmation classes in the next few months.

Cheese, Wine, and Poetry at St Matthias : 20th September

On Friday 20th September Trevor Potter will be reading poetry at a cheese and wine evening at St Matthias vicarage. This event will start at 7:30pm, and will last for about ninety minutes. It should be fun and will raise funds for our boiler!

Donations of five pounds per person will be invited. Please let Fr Simon know if you're thinking of coming.