A blessing on dystopia?

Dear friends,

One of the seminal films of the 1980’s was Ridley Scott’s “Blade Runner”, starring Harrison Ford, with a soundtrack by Vangelis. Scott gave us a vision of a completely urbanised globe, a vast metropolis with layer upon layer of habitation, where hyper modernity lived side by side with urban collapse, and bio engineering was done in street side laboratories in the same way cars are fixed today. The natural world had all but disappeared, save for the ever present torrential rain, and power was in the hands of the corporations who led the race to the “off world colonies” where human “replicants” (clones) do the dirty work of war and obtaining the resources now exhausted from the home planet.

As nations gather in Glasgow to consider what kind of world our children will live in, let us pray that they remind themselves of the big picture, which is that in a world of finite resources, any model based on competition will in the end lead to war, and (until commerical space travel is a reality!) any model that ignores the need for population management has missed the largest elephant of them all. Economic models can be tweaked, and technology can be tailored, but unless there is radical, urgent and decisive collaboration, COP26 will simply be intoning a blessing on the dystopian status quo, which leads inexorably to humanity’s alienation from the natural world God gave us to steward. The gates of Eden are closing fast. It is time for humility, and repentence.

Worship Services for Sunday 7th November.

9.30am Family Worship at St John’s Stoke Row, led by Mr Peter Ferguson

11am Morning Prayer at Checkendon Church, led by Revd James Leach.

6.30pm-7pm. Together at Home. A short online evening service with Revd Kevin.  Zoom numbers 636 645 195 and passcode 000162. Music, prayer, and a word from Mark’s gospel.

It is absolutely OK to pass these details onto friends and family, who are very welcome to join us. Other service options can be found on the Langtree Team Ministry Churches website.

You can support Checkendon church and  Stoke Row churches via dedicated and secure online card donation pages. Just click on the link. It is very secure.

Remembrance Sunday

Is Sunday week, the 14th of November. Our churches across the team ministry will be remembering the fallen from our communities. Do join us at the war memorials as we gather to hear their names once again. At Checkendon we welcome back the uniformed organisations who will also be presenting their colours in our service. We’ll be keeping the church doors open throughout, and it remains permissible to wear your mask, or not, as you choose.

Finally, don’t forget to take up the offer of a Covid booster as soon as it becomes available to you, and if you are at all uncomfortable about joining in with our live worship, remember that anyone from across the Team is very welcome to tune in online for Together at Home every Sunday at 6.30pm for half an hour.

May the Lord bles syou and keep you.   Revd Kevin.