The last jar of marmalade
Dear friends
It is the time of the year (in our household at least) when the marmalade runs out. By which I mean that the vast stocks created in the jam pan in January have all been consumed. The cupboards have been scoured for the final jars, but now it is all gone. We have to wait until the marmalde oranges come in again, and make do with invariably inferior marmalade of the commercial variety. It is an annual tragedy that plays out; marmalade consumption falls in real terms, as shelves that were once full of breakfast promise are now just places where empty jars are stored.
This is not a bad parable of where our world is at the moment, and certainly where the UK finds itself. We have grown up expecting jam every day, but now, suddenly, it appears that the cupboards are bare. Not only is the table depleted, the makers of marmalade have told us that we will need to wait, and learn to wait, before the treasures of the table may be seen again. The growing queues of people who have heard of the vastness of the UK’s marmalade supply engender the ire of everyone who fears for their own breakfast.
However scarcity is relative. To an old lady in Kherson this week the gift of life itself takes on new meaning, as the fear she was living under melts away. Now, power for heat, food and water become the crucial needs, and her country, with help, works towards being in a position to offer these once again. Join with me in continuing to pray for the gift of peace for the people of Ukraine, and for those who working behind the scenes to bring diplomatic pressure to bear on Russia and its allies. Whatever you have on your breakfast table, thank God for it, together with the peace in which you can savour it.
Worship Services for Sunday 20th November
9.30am Informal Service at St John’s, Stoke Row with Mr Peter Ferguson
11am Family Service at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Canon Kevin Davies. With the music group, and coffee after.
Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm 410 935 129
Other service options for elsewhere in the Team can be found on the Langtree Team Ministry Churches website. Do join us for worship either in person, or online, or both. Don’t forget that you now can support both Checkendon and Stoke Row churches via dedicated and secure online card donation pages. Just click on the link. It is very easy! Thank you for your support.
Last things
Please don’t forget to bring a tin/packet/jar now and then to leave in the Food Bank collection point in church. Breakfast cereal is always welcome, but please nothing perishable. Your donations go to the Wallingford Food Bank.
Please pray for the family and friends of Jean Walker of Woodcote, whose funeral is at Reading Crematorium on Nov 22nd. Please also remember Mary Weller of Checkendon, now in the Coombe House care home, in Streatley.
Please also pray for Amelia Thornton and Qasim Afzal, whose wedding blessing service is at Checkendon on December 10th.
Thanks you to everyone who supported the Remembrance Sunday services around the Team last week, and especially the members of the uniformed organsations and their leaders who read and led the prayers so well.
“By the tender mercy of our God, the dawn from on high will break upon us, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.” Luke 1:78-79
Your Rector, Canon Kevin
PS Quick Quiz: (i) Which canticle features this section of Luke’s gospel? (ii) Additional question: what is a canticle?
One Comment
Hi Kevin. I enjoyed reading your article. It took me right back to my childhood when my mother made literally hundreds of pounds of marmalade to her own recipe. My father did not enjoy breakfast without a large helping of marmalade on his toast.
I am sure this is from the Benedictus, which I remember singing every Sunday in Morning Prayer at church, again in my childhood. The words of the old services are wonderful, and I am sad we have lost most of them. A canticle is a song. usually non metrical, and particularly sung in church.