Stitching Time

Dear friends,

In coincidental synchronicity, the church clocks at Checkendon and Stoke Row are both under repair at the moment. At Stoke Row it is obvious that something is afoot, thanks to the scaffolding framework creeping up the tower. Here, the rods connecting the clock mechanism to the hands on the dial outside have become stuck, and need attention. If funds permit, restoration of the dial and hands, with a re-gilding, will be undertaken. At Checkendon, access is from the interior of the tower, via the vertiginous ladder up from the ringer’s platform. The engineer here will be servicing the antique workings, and fitting an electronic winding mechanism, so that the perilous weekly undertaking to ascend to wind the clock will be replaced with an annual service visit. Both churches are facing repair bills in the thousands of pounds, in order to continue to provide a small service to our local communities. Arguably, however, the service is not so much in the measurement of time – your phone will tell you that – but the simple comfort of knowing that some things remain as they were, unchanged, and that we are each of us connected to one another by the regularity and commonality of the passing hours and the chiming of the bells which carry to us on the breeze, and which sound our forbears in this place would have heard, and also understood. . From the properties of metal, of moving gear and cog, the power of gravity, to the electromagnetic resonance of a pure crystal of quartz when a voltage is applied across it, to the turning of the page of a diary, or the sheets of a calendar, the fascination of “frequency” holds us in its web, as we live and move and have our  being in God’s universe. This message of faithful and gentle connection will not fall silent while it is in our power to uphold it.

Our church clocks remind us  – whatever our outlook on life – that our days are bounded, limited, and above all gifted. Jesus chided his hearers for being able to tell the (agricultural) seasons, but not being able to discern the “signs of the times”. His message was that the Kingdom of God was among us, here, now, and that we should lift our eyes.

If you’d like to support this repair work with a small donation, please click on the relevant place name above, which will take you to either church’s card payment page. If you’d like to make a larger offering, please contact me directly via email for the relevant church’s bank details for an electronic transfer. Please reference any gift “clockwork”. Thank you, all, for your support for our churches. All your donations in this instance will go  entirely to our churches “fabric” funds.

Worship Services

Sunday 27th July

9.30am Holy Communion at St John’s Stoke Row with Revd Romey Poston

11am Holy Communion at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Revd John Blair

Midweek zoom service: Wednesday Evensong at 5.00pm  410 935 129

Sunday 3rd August

9.30am Morning Prayer at St John’s Stoke Row

11am Morning Prayer at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon.

Clocking off

Many of the staff team are taking annual leave over the next few weeks; for any queries ecclesial in your parish and team Revd John Blair (Tel 681100) will be around.  I’d like to pay tribute to all of our wonderful clergy and lay ministers here in the Langtree team, who care for you, and our communities in this part of the world. Thank you, for your love for your churches, one another, and the ministry that we share.

“There is a time for everything, and a season for every purpose under heaven.” Take a few minutes if you will to sink into David Suchet’s narration of the book of Ecclesiastes, Chapter 3. Here is the link – Chapter 3 begins at 7 minutes 10 seconds in.

My time for this season is done – thank you all for your support on this watch. There won’t be one of these notes from me next week, as I’ll be on leave, too, perhaps winding down a little. I wish you all peace, and joy, and hope, in the Lord.

Your Rector, Canon Kevin