The gift of art, poetry, music and more!

Tim Scott, Team Rector.

A hymn to the Creator

Morning glory, starlit sky, Leaves in springtime, swallows' flight, Autumn gales, tremendous seas, Sounds and scents of summer night; Soaring music, tow'ring words, Art's perfection, scholar's truth, Joy supreme of human love, Memory's treasure, grace of youth; Open, Lord are these, Thy gifts, Gifts of love to mind and sense; Hidden is love's agony, Love's endeavour, love's expense. Love that gives gives ever more, Gives with zeal, with eager hands, Spares not, keeps not, all outpours, Ventures all, its all expends. Drained is love in making full; Bound in setting others free; Poor in making many rich; Weak in giving power to be.

Therefore He Who thee reveals Hangs, O Father, on that Tree Helpless; and the nails and thorns Tell of what thy love must be. Thou art God; no monarch Thou Thron'd in easy state to reign; Thou art God, Whose arms of love Aching, spent, the world sustain.

WH Vanstone.

I was fortunate to have the Tate Modern Art

Museum in my previous parish and I was able

to spend time there and worked closely with

one of the members of staff using art as a way to

enable us to think about issues of Christian faith,

empowerment and social cohesion.

In this time of lockdown I have again began to

rediscover, when time has allowed, the importance

of the arts — art, stories, poetry, music, theatre

and musicals.

There is much online at this time including

productions by the National Theatre and Musicals

filmed on stage. Galleries have gone online and I know that poetry has been

something that has become important for many people. It was suggested that the

poem/hymn A hymn to the Creator By WH Vanstone which I have found helpful be

printed in St Mary‘s magazine and it’s reproduced here.

During this time of lockdown, I hope that each of us will be able to have time to

appreciate some of the arts in a new way. It could be a gift of the present moment. I

end with two quotes, both from Laura Merzig Fabrycky in an article for the

Washington Institute for Faith, Vocation and Culture:

The poet is one who gives us new eyes to see, who helps us make sense of what we

experience, and who invites others to see more deeply into what it is that their

experiences mean.

The first and prior work, though, to all human seeing and meaning-making is God’s

own seeing, his sight of us, and his knowledge of our human situation.

God is present with us, sees deeply into our present situation and understands.

With my prayers and best wishes,

Tim

Easter Puzzles

E aster has passed

and this year we

have had little

opportunity to worship

together. Let’s go back to

the time of the Last Supper,

which Jesus describes as a

chance to celebrate

Passover with his closest disciples. Passover was, and is, the most important festival

for a Jewish household, a reminder of the time when Jews in slavery in Egypt would

escape the threat of death by sacrificing a lamb and marking the top and sides of

the door frames of their houses with the blood. Exodus 12 gives a full story. To this

day it is the custom in a Jewish home for the youngest child present to ask “why do

we do this?”. But there are two queries we may have:

Exodus 12 also says that the sacrificial animal may be taken from among the sheep

or the goats. However, there is no error here for the Hebrew word previously

translated ‘lamb’ can be the offspring of either a sheep or a goat.

Was the Last Supper actually a Passover meal, for this would normally be

celebrated on the eve of the Passover Sabbath which would be a Friday? However,

it appears that Jewish custom did permit the Passover to be celebrated early in case

of urgent necessity. Then finally there are two other issues that we will often just

pass over:

“the curtain of the Temple was torn in two from top to bottom”.

What was the meaning of this? At the heart of the Temple was the Holy Place which

could be entered only by the priest offering the daily sacrifice, but beyond that, and

shielded by a curtain was the Most Holy Place. This could be entered only by the

High Priest himself and on one day in the year, the Day of Atonement, when he

offered sacrifice for his own and the people’s sins. The tearing of the Temple curtain

was a sign that the barriers between God and humankind were removed with the

death of Jesus.

“My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”

Apparently a cry of despair on the part of jesus, but it is also the opening of Psalm

22 which concludes with a cry of triumph. The psalm is worth reading as a whole.

Paul Stalder

Lockdown St Mary’s

A locked church is such a strange idea. But that was St Mary’s just a few

years ago: open for services and events, and on weekday mornings. It was

in 2017 when our rector was chaining the gates in the middle of the day

as usual, he thought “How wrong this is!” We quickly adopted the principle that the

church building should be open as much as possible. There has been a regular rota

to lock up through the week: Mike Cooke, Bernard and Sylvia North, Paul Stalder,

Michael and Jill Earle, Lesley Farrall, backed up by several others. John Watkins has

devoted time regularly to being in church one afternoon a week. In the summer

months we also kept the church open during weekends as much as possible.

What about insurance? We checked with Ecclesiastical, who insure us and many

other churches. So many insurers only provide cover to locked buildings, but not

them. They said, “Lock everything except the front door”. Certain items are put

away when the church is unattended; others have been marked with Smartwater

security paint. There have been a few concerns, but clearing up a few crisp packets

has been a small price to pay for making the building available to everyone.

It has been rewarding to spend time in church sometimes, maybe attending to some

small maintenance tasks. It is a rare hour when nobody comes through the door to

look around, to pray or be quiet, to light a candle. Faces are often lit with awe at the

sight of St Mary’s interior: the central tower, the soaring clerestory, the obvious

sanctity of the chancel, the imposing organ. This is a sacred place.

But now in lockdown, St Mary’s is locked again. It is even frozen in Lent, with the

purple array still decking the nave altar. There is such stillness, and it has not been

touched by spring’s warmth or flowers. The Chapter House is adorned with some

spectacular cobwebs. There has been criticism from some that the church

authorities have exceeded the government’s own recommendations in totally

closing the buildings: it was certainly painful to go through Holy Week and Easter

without even being able to sit alone in our church. But this was purposeful suffering

and slight: we have underlined how important it was to stay at home. Being denied

entry, we understand afresh how much we value coming together for worship – and

have found ways to do that. (Read about our on-line services).

Wait a minute – how can anyone know how the church feels, now it’s locked? Well,

someone has to keep an eye on the place, and the wardens have the keys! How we

look forward to opening the doors wide for everyone.

Some reflections on the lockdown… Has anyone found yeast?

Creep into the Co-op, the distanced queue strangely social

The shopping list a random walk, but don’t look back

(Remember Lot’s wife)

Shelves bare of old leaven, (corruption and wickedness)

Select strong flowers and spirits redolent of smoky peat,

For mental health, you understand?

Better try Pullins.

Man shall not live…

Apart a part of life, so not from life to part

Unburdened days no load on medics

Masked, shielded, full panoply of gowns

Supply chains heavy

Breathing difficult

Breath on me breath of God

So shall I never die.

Our Churching amidst Corona

Pandemics bring panic and doom

Yet we learn things amidst all this gloom.

'Corona's' not beer;

'PPE'’s fancy gear;

And on Sundays we meet up on 'Zoom'.

Our worship has now been replaced

Learning lingo made up in great haste.

My old persecutor

Spoke to me in ‘computer’

But it’s ‘medic’ with which I’m now faced.

Has the ‘R’ got now smaller than one?

Is the lock down for some nearly done?

When the curve droops down low,

Cognoscenti will know

It’s Church everyone, we’ll have won.

Ryan Densham

LISTENING CHAPLAINCY PHONELINE

Serving Bristol, Somerset and South Gloucestershire

To access this service, dial 0330 229 1700 from 8am-

11pm 7 days a week

Representatives of the different faith communities within

the Avon and Somerset police area have set up a

dedicated phoneline offering 1-2-1 chaplaincy. The Faith

Communities Major Emergencies Team for Avon and Somerset was established more

than 30 years ago to provide faith-based face-to-face pastoral and spiritual support

to people of all faiths and none in times of emergency. The service has been adapted

to become a direct dial phoneline for people affected by the COVID-19 crisis.

This faith-based service is especially for anyone facing end of life issues,

bereavement or who is anxious about someone in hospital, residential care or

isolated at home. Their concern could be for a family member, friend, colleague or

neighbour, or someone they have been caring for through their work.

We can also offer a listening ear to:

those who are anxious about relatives who are seriously ill, especially if there

is no option of visiting them in person;

people unable to see the body of a loved one after death or unable to attend

a funeral;

key workers affected by work-related issues, perhaps overwhelmed by what

they are facing or dealing with;

the “worried well” and anyone else anxious about the effects of COVID-19 on

their lives.

This service is open to everyone – of all faiths and none. It is rooted in the inclusive

ethos of the Christian and other major faiths. The majority of our volunteers are

Christians but able to refer on to representatives of other faiths. It offers

compassionate listening and, if requested, prayer for those who welcome it. We

operate a policy of confidentiality, under the safeguarding and monitoring

framework of the Church of England. The host partner is the Diocese of Bath and

Wells. We are not able to offer long-term bereavement care or counselling, though

we can signpost to other specialist organisations .

Contributed by Lesley Farrall

Lock Down

There’s a different world emerging,

New words written, spoken, sung,

Corvid – 19, on-line teaching,

Sounds like a foreign tongue.

There is post pandemic fall out,

Lock down, download, relevant app.

Social distancing and zooming

Small computers on the lap.

Ask the young! They understand it,

Fingers tapping on the keys.

Exit strategies are useful

P’rhaps we all need one of these.

There’s a New World to discover

And Life here is put ‘on hold’,

In His Heaven God is waiting

And the dice has just been rolled.

Mary Kesby

Lockdown

A cross was chained to the locked

South gates in Holy Week

Crowned with thorns on Good Friday

Decorated with flowers at Easter

Adorned with an empty cloth for resurrection

It remains to bear witness to the Passion

A focus for all until Ascension

Zoom to church

The church is made of living stones, being built together. We cannot meet

in church, we must not meet at home, but we can meet on line. On

Maundy Thursday we met to recall the Last Supper in a simple service held

via the Zoom internet conference service used by so many. Since then we

have held two Sunday evening on-line services with many contributors,

c

Yatton community support

The response of the people of Yatton to the CV-19 pandemic has been heart-

warming. A support group with 700+ members quickly formed on Facebook. Look for

‘Yatton and Claverham Community support’. This is exclusively for requests and offers

of help. (General village chat should be directed to the Yatton Community Facebook

group, with almost 3000 members.) Can you pick up a prescription? No problem! Can

anyone spare a sewing machine? That led to a small tsunami of offers.

Councillor Steve Bridger has been very active, recruiting many local volunteers who

can be called on, particularly to help those in isolation. This has been done with a

light touch, but has provided another point where local needs and assistance can be

matched up.

The Community Meals initiative taken by Jonny Burnett has made the national press.

The Butcher’s Arms have made their kitchen available for this, so that volunteers are

now providing about 1000 meals per week locally, free to those who need them. They

have raised more than £20,000, and have a Just Giving page to continue to provide

funds. This photo shows a socially distanced gathering of volunteers before we really

locked down, who

distributed leaflets

advertising the

community food

initiative.

Are there any streets

silent at 8pm on

Thursdays? It’s doubtful.

The weekly applause for

carers and the NHS has been fantastic. This continuing appreciation has touched deep

feelings, and has even been called ‘secular worship’. It has also been a great way to

connect for a moment with neighbours before retreating into our protective isolation

for another week.

In May our own church is supporting Christian Aid. Many charities are experiencing

such a drop in donations that their causes will be harmed. We can’t hold a church

breakfast, but our on-line ‘coffee after the service’ and our evening on-line service on

May 10th feature Christian Aid.

Planned services

All at 6pm via the Zoom conference facility

Sunday May 3rd—Evening prayer

Sunday May 10th—Christian Aid service

Sunday May 17th—Rogation service

Thursday May 21st—Ascension service

Sunday May 24th—Evening prayer

Sunday May 31st—Pentecost

If you have access to the internet, and have provided an email address

to the church office, we will send a link each week to join in worship.

Regular worshippers

T his is an article that begins with dry

numbers and ends in the wonder of

Easter. The Church of England has an

annual count of its regular worshippers, meaning

those who attend at least once a month, or (if they

are housebound or in a care home) clearly regard

St Mary’s as their church. Some of this is a

statistical interest, to understand how the church

is serving its community. It also has the purpose of

assessing how much a church should contribute to

the diocese the following year, the Parish Share,

which is the principal source of finance to the

diocese, and which pays for priests and other

workers across all parishes. The Parish Share is the

largest fraction of our parish budget each year,

and the count is done honestly (of course) and

carefully. The numbers go through PCC approval.

(The PCC is the Parochial Church Council, the main governing body of the parish.)

Over the last few years the numbers have been entered with a sense of heartache,

because they recorded a decline of ten or even twenty per year. It’s sad but obvious

that we lose some older worshippers every year. Some have moved away, some

have chosen to leave us. But not this year. Yes, some have died and we miss them.

But others have joined us, so that our official count only went down by one. We

have prayed for a change of direction from decline to growth, and we are grateful to

have this encouraging sign. If you are one of the newcomers, welcome!

One of the challenges this year is how to be outward facing and serving our

community with a locked church. But if we have asked questions about life

ourselves during this scary pandemic, so has everyone else. We have a hope in the

life and resurrection of Christ which has become astonishingly relevant. If our own

faith has been challenged, but we have found the Easter story a real support, then

we are really well equipped to bless our neighbour with the same hope – from a

safe distance! We can even relax about this. It’s God’s church, not ours.

Mike Cooke

Craft club

A reminder of normal times… At Craft Club we decided it was time to do a

little up-cycling and turned our minds to piggy banks and paper mache.

For two weeks the children had great fun covering a milk container with

newspaper and glue. For a further two weeks they decorated their piggy banks

in their own individual style using paint and other accessories.

Sylvia, Rosie, Sheila and Pam

Tower Lighting

Don’t forget that the opportunity to light the church tower in memory

of a loved one or to celebrate a family event is always available. Please

contact Clare in the Team Office (details on back page).

Here are two such events:

30th January – In loving memory of Ken on his Birthday, from Ruth and

family

7th May – Remembering Ray/Viv Wathen on his Birthday. Love from

Linda and family

An

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QUIZ - Bond films

WITHOUT CHEATING, including the latest, how many Bond films can you name?

(On the subject of spies, I’ve heard that there is someone around here spying on

their neighbours. That’s not possible – I would have noticed ages ago.) Nancy

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“With many in our country on lockdown, it’s important that we support those

who are feeling lonely and isolated, whatever age they are." Archbishop Justin

Welby Particularly aimed at people who have no internet access, Daily Hope offers

music, prayers and reflections as well as full worship services from the Church of

England at the end of a telephone line.

April 2020…

I think most of us would agree that April this year has been one we’ll never forget for

all the wrong reasons — no Easter services, no physical contact with family or

friends, isolation, loneliness. However, some things have lifted my heart — the

beauty of a bluebell wood — and the jokes which I constantly receive from friends

keep me smiling! Val

THE YATTON MOOR TEAM MINISTRY

Website: www.yattonchurches.org

Facebook: Yatton Moor Churches

Team Office: St Mary’s Church, Church Road, Yatton, BRISTOL BS49 4HH

Monday - Friday 9:30 a.m. – 11:30 a.m.

01934 832184 ~ Answerphone at other times

E-mail: office@yattonchurches.com

Team Rector: Revd Tim Scott 01934 838960

Team Vicar: Revd Nigel Thomas 01934 283340

Assist. Priests: Revd Avril Gaunt 01934 832995

Revd Linda Scott 01934 838960

Revd Richard Taylor 01934 413263

Readers: Allan Attwood 01934 838000

Paul Stalder 01934 832935

Wardens: Pat Denny 01934 838902

Mike Cooke 07842 829895

Associate Jill Earle 01934 835436

Wardens: Robert Manley 01275 341155

Safeguarding: Ann Long 01934 833725

Pre-School: Judy Berry 01934 838229

Musical Director: Rachel Branston 07875 417476

Fabric: Bernard North 01934 838700

Planned giving Michael Earle 01934 835436

Email: mjg.earle@gmail.com

Magazine: Val Dickens 01934 832800

Email: valddickens@gmail.com

Bells Captain: Bernard North 01934 838700

Mike and Val will aim to produce the next magazine in the summer months. We welcome

articles, stories, poems and perhaps reflections on the current situation, on isolation, of how

it has changed you or the world around you. Contact details are above. Content can be sent

to Val electronically or in hard copy to the Team Office.

St. Mary’s Magazine is published by the Parochial Church Council of

Yatton Moor (Registered Charity number 1132177)