May 5, 2006
Dear Friends and Relations,
Spring has hardly been true to its name in Wales this year, as
yesterday was the first day truly warm enough to walk out without
wearing a sweater or jacket, and suddenly we’ve become aware
of the primroses. Instead of springing exuberantly out of the
winter gloom, it seems to have trudged sluggishly this year, with
a chronic cold drizzle extending the dull grey of a British winter
as far in the direction of June as possible. Last week, walking
to the bus stop after a wedding rehearsal dinner, we tried to
think of the word for “drizzle” in as many languages
as possible—Welsh, Russian, Farsi, Dutch and some languages
from southern Africa I don’t have names for. In one of the
latter, we learned, the word for “rain” also served
as the word for “grace.”
Easter came this year with a congregation so large that we ran
out of Communion glasses. None of the old folk could remember
this ever happening before, so the mood was very jolly and the
singing was terrific. I took the following Sunday off, and then
the next Sunday (this last Sunday, as I write), the sanctuary
was packed again from front to back and into the side aisles.
It was wonderful. We have a dozen new candidates for membership,
new children coming into Junior Church, and as soon as we publish
a new directory of who’s in the pews, it gets out of date.
This is a very good thing in a country experiencing freefall decline
in church attendance. A neighbor church has just this last week
decided to close. As congregations and resources shrink, clergy
are increasingly stretched. A good friend of mine, an Anglican
priest, had his daughter’s wedding last Saturday, for which
he also had to serve as caretaker, then on Sunday had four services
(he looks after five churches) and a wedding. Another friend has
pastoral oversight for nine churches. So I feel very privileged
that I can still serve City Church without being stretched like
this to look after other congregations as well. I don’t
know how long it can stay this way, though, as ministerial deployment
is being cut across the country. I more or less assume that at
some point I will be asked to take on another congregation as
well as this one.
City’s commitment to marginalized people in the city is
the only reason I can think of for the church becoming as strong
as it is. This coming Tuesday a documentary will be televised
about our work at City Church with asylum seekers. The sense of
welcome, affirmation and openness here is remarkable. People who
feel less than acceptable in some other church communities find
open arms here, and others seem to just want to be part of such
a scene.
We also have a lot of fun here. After spending January in an
annual intensive study of the Gospel for the current lectionary
year (Mark, this year), they wanted to spend Lent letting their
hair down in a series of meetings for home fellowship, going out
together for curry, and one very well attended wine and cheese
party featuring fairly traded wine. The kids spent every Saturday
during Lent preparing for the Palm Sunday services, beginning
with discussions of the passion story and imagining how we would
present it. The rest of Lent was spent making papier-mache masks,
puppets, and costumes, and rehearsing. The service started out
with an exuberant procession of larger-than-life-size puppets
carried in on poles. The Palm Sunday entry into Jerusalem was
then re-shown along with the cleansing of the Temple in a projected
clip from Pasolini’s “The Gospel According to St Matthew.”
Later, wearing papier-mache masks they had made, the kids acted
out the Last Supper and then distributed bread to the people.
The trial before Pilate was performed as a Punch and Judy show
in a puppet booth made by our caretaker. Instead of a standard
crucifixion, we had a young boy in a lamb costume being led in
on a leash, then having his legs tied up and a knife being sharpened
for the slaughter, and then we all began to sing, “O Sacred
Head now wounded.” In the final scene, a young boy lying
on the Communion table as if dead is carried out by three of the
older girls as the Passion Chorale continues to be played in the
background. It was very moving. I liked how the production grew
out of the kids’ own imagination and hard work.
We had our usual candlelight potluck supper with Communion for
Maundy Thursday, and on Good Friday, this year being the 100th
anniversary of Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s birth, we featured
a service combining the passion readings with readings from his
works, and stark, twentieth-century music performed by piano and
flute. The Bonhoeffer service was put together by a member who
had just finished a master’s thesis on that theologian.
So life continues to be exciting at City Church. The cat and
I are struggling to hold things together here at home right now
as Marieke has left with her sisters for Indonesia to spend the
month of May re-visiting the area where they spent their early
childhood. I can hardly wait to hear her stories when she returns,
and see the pictures. We hope all is well with you, and with your
churches.
Peace be with you,
Tom (and Marieke) Arthur
The 2006 Mission Yearbook for Prayer & Study, p.
175 |
