From the Old to the New Spring 2024

Flowering Cherry. Photo Brian Green

The print/paper version of Tides and Tidings was originally published in 2012, shortly after the arrival of Reverend Ian Shelton who found as he visited former members of the St Giles Congregation, and now housebound, were wanting to hear news, and keep up to date with what was happening at Church, future events and also to share their memories of Rowley past.

The very first of those interviewed for the Magazine was Mrs Joan Allen who lived half way down the very steep hill, Powke Lane by yours truly, i took along notebook, pen and a camera… Joan was thrilled to bits and to be in print!

Copies of the Magazine were circulated by Reverend Ian to all those on his home visits. Reverend Barrie, fleet of foot, still competing in Master-Class Athletics at home and internationally, then took on the role of “Roving Reporter” collecting stories from church members, with new and old and local interest stories. Whilst others researched the stories behind the names on the World War 1 memorials in the churchyard, sent me their stories of local ghosts (oh many of those) and personal memories, even more of those. Upcoming church events were announced in good time…. With baptisms, weddings and funerals… there were stories and colouring pages for the children, quizzes for grown ups, much more besides.

Tides and Tidings first years were very productive. Very few of our senior members of the church family had internet access, or smart phone … there are still some who don’t even these days. Our Sunday Services are now live streamed but for those without the means of accessing there is still a thirst for news. They are also missing some excellent sermons by Reverend John Bridge.

They are also missing Springtime arriving in the Churchyard.

The Flowering Cherry is one of two gifted to us from a descendant of a former Curate-in-Charge, Thomas Garratt 1698.

And Outdoor Church, where Sunday 21st April a group of intrepid explorers were out in the Churchyard learning about the Good Shepherd, looked for birds and made some fat balls for the birds in the gardens back home under the guidance of Emma Cartwright who is working with us as we grow younger.

St Giles Outdoor Church 21st April 2024

Keep me travelling along with you

Tides and Tidings is pleased to report this Springtime St Giles is truly travelling from the old to the new.

New Churchwarden Sarah Gronow elected 14th April 2024

and hopefully Tides and Tidings can keep pace with it all.

An Open Letter from the pews

Thoughtful Bear

The end of the Old Year and the Beginning of the New Year mean letters and cards from people not seen in awhile, news of house moves, of new arrivals to families and sad news. Any year, in any persons life brings its share of of joys and woes; not always in the proportions we would hope for and ask for.

Thoughtful bear arrived in good time for Christmas, the gift of our thoughtful Churchwarden, Yvonne and here he is sitting on top of my Bible with Reading glasses nearby. Thoughtful Bear has been reading letters and cards along with me, and because he is a thoughtful bear has been a very quiet bear, he’s “Been thinking all the more” – as we say in this part of the world. In this part of the world, as in all parts of the world, there is much to think about. I suspect that every person who may read this post has been thoughtful too, thinking through what ever New Year’s Resolutions might be appropriate, and whether to make any or not, as well as planning for this year’s events, here I can hear words from years past that were, constantly, on the lips of a dear friend, “What man proposes, God deposes”

Not every Resolution, or plan, however carefully made may bear the fruit we are hoping for, but at such a time I am thinking, that I can trust the Lord that in His good purpose for my life all will be well and all manner of thing shall be well

“Has anything changed for the better this year (2023)”

I asked, a friend as they say, on Facebook

I was delighted by this reply,

“Yes, many lives have changed for the better through the Grace of God”

When disappointment, sadness, tragedy or just plain old everyday trouble is staring at us like a hard stone wall it s always good for us to remember the Grace of our Lord Jesus who said to his servant Paul and says, if only we will accept it, to all of us

“My Grace is sufficient for you, for my strength is made perfect in weakness”

2 Corinthians 12.9

And from my pocket cross

Faith makes all things possible, Hope makes all things work, Love makes all things beautiful.

And now (2024) abide faith, hope, love, these three, but the greatest of these is love.

1 Corinthians 1.13 NKJV

If older persons, who have walked with the Lord Jesus for many years, such as myself, have any advantage over younger friends it is simply this, we know from personal experience that the One who goes before us into this New Year has never and never will leave us or forsake us.

From me and Thoughtful Bear may every good wish, and prayer be given…. with the Lord’s Blessing

Through many tribulations

I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden
Along with the sunshine
There’s gotta be a little rain sometime
When you take you gotta give so live and let live or let go
Oh-whoa-whoa-whoa
I beg your pardon
I never promised you a rose garden

So the song goes. As we go through life, we do find that the loveliest roses do have thorns, that life has plenty of dark dreary days; that rain can and does make us wet.

When we first set out to follow Jesus I rather suspect that we do expect every day to be sunshine and rather naively that life will be and should be a bed of roses.

Did the Lord Jesus ever promise that?

No he did not.

When the Lord Jesus sent his servant Ananias to baptise the newly converted Saul of Tarsus, The Lord Jesus said,

“Go, for “he is a chosen instrument of mine to carry my name before the Gentiles and kings and the children of Israel. For I will show him how much he must suffer for the sake of my name*

And so the Lord did and suffer is what Paul did. But without giving up. If he had the New Testament would be very incomplete and many millions would never have heard, or received for themselves the Good News of God’s Saving Grace in the Lord Jesus Christ.

True, Saul who became Paul once held the coats of those stoning Stephen, but listen to this from Acts 14

Paul Stoned at Lystra

¹⁹ But Jews came from Antioch and Iconium, and having persuaded the crowds, they stoned Paul and dragged him out of the city, supposing that he was dead. ²⁰ But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe. ²¹ When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch,²² strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. ²³ And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed.

Acts 14: 19-23

Very, very many times, Paul found himself beaten up, left for dead and worse … but he never, never gave up. Often as in the passage above it was his own fellow countrymen, those of the Jewish faith who were the cause of his pain and conflict. But did Paul ever give up on them? Did he ever once give up praying for them? Did he ever once stop or tire of speaking about the death, resurrection and the eternal life offered in Jesus Name?

Absolutely not!

Some of us have had a kind of bad week this week. It has rained quite a bit on our parade … we hope that those reading this have known the gentle touch of sunshine but if not would encourage our fellow believers not to give up ….

Take Up Your Crossand Follow Jesus

And he said to all, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and takeup his cross daily and follow me.

Luke 9.23

Rowley Villagers~The Way It Used To Be

At the end of June, in this our Centenary Year, Rowley’s Open the Book Team welcomed pupils from Blackheath Primary School into Church to help them make connections with the Rowley of 100 years ago. Letters of appreciation expressed the success of the venture

So here we are, Joyce Walker behind the counter of a local shop, Paul and Isobel Byrne getting ready for a tough day in school, Olwyn Plant getting ready for ‘knocking’ the house over, Emma Cartwright and Gwen Sidaway in their Sunday best, and that’s Paul again … he just had to pop into the shop to buy the loaf of bread, lastly David Walker and Tony Comfort off to the Quarry to chip away at stones for the road.

Rowley Villagers Or The Way It Used To Be

Bayley’s Post Office

Although I wasn’t around, most definitely wasn’t around ,a 100 years ago Bayley’s Post Office was and spending my sixpence at the sweetie counter was the highlight of my early years. All sorts went on in the post office including grinding coffee beans. Turning the steep corner, by the telephone box. walking down the even steeper Springfield Lane took me home to number 68 the ‘cottage’ where I was born. Both the Bayley Brothers were members of St Giles Church both were PCC members. And, both used to call it Rowley Church … not Saint Giles. Everyone knew the Church on the Hill as Rowley Church, with pride because every single body in Rowley contributed in ways small and large to rebuild it following the fire in 1913 which razed it to the ground.

Time does not stand still, outside the boundary wall new houses are being built in more or less exactly where houses remembered in my childhood, were demolished less than 50 years ago.

The Open the Book Team visit our local primary school nearly every week during Term Time, they present the stories from the Bible and share with children the precious news that we have a Father in Heaven who loved the world so much that He sent His Son Jesus to live amongst us as a Villager who worked in a Carpenters Shop.

Rowley and the lives of its people go on, the Church on the Hill reaches up to the sky, although the streets around us, the buildings come and go and of a necessity the present building will also change… but the Home. The Dwelling Place which God has prepared for us will never change…meantime, Open The Book Team, Reverend John and the whole church family have a “foundation” to build on.

By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as a wise builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should build with care. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ

1 Cor. 10. 11

Someone Has to Write it Down

Carole, Vera, Iris, Barbara

In every church, there is always a need for someone to write it down. Whether it be an entry in the Service Registers, the Churchyard Records, a name, a place a date on the Side’s Persons Rota, the intercessions Rota, the Flower Calendar, the list goes on. So very important the simple note left to ask someone else to return a phone call, and to inform announcements made before Sunday Service, and the pew sheet. Nowadays we have technology at hand to assist the Parish Administration … the Live Events Diary prompting the Administrator to send Cards, and the Vicar to call the Banns.

But truly, the humble paper and pen will never, in my view, go out of fashion and archived copies of Parish Magazines going back before the Dedication of our present Church Building (4 church buildings on 1 site since 1199) are continually researched by local historians. Even more so this year which is our Centenary Year This 4th Building being dedicated September 29th 1923. It will be An exciting year, and one I hope which will be written about at length and by many..

I spend, many hours looking for answers in response to questions asked today, concerning people, events, of years long gone and past, helping to fill in gaps for persons scattered far and wide, sometimes from overseas, people looking for family roots … so satisfying and rewarding to find the few lines or words that mean so much to earnest seekers.

The photograph of four ladies sitting together would be just a puzzle to someone looking at it from the future, without the names recorded beneath, it Carole, Vera, Iris and Barbara for the record:-

Carole is Carole Annetts our current Parish Administrator the lady who keeps the Rotas and Schedules updated. Carole organises Parish Outings amongst other events

Vera Round was born, grew up and still lives in Rowley. Vera once boasted red hair, is still outspoken, with a gentle, warm and outgoing personality… Vera’s writer daughter, lives in Australia and is of the firm opinion that Vera will be with us to celebrate her personal centenary year. Amen to that.

Little Iris, Iris Westwood is in the green cardigan. Sadly Iris is no longer with us to help with the flowers, she was enormously talented that way, and quietly, very generously kind, contributing that really useful jar of coffee, and this and that when most needed. It is the little things, the little flowers in life, such as Iris which make life beautiful and sweeter.

Next to Iris in the grey blue Jacket is Barbara Callow. Barbara is Mum to Churchwarden, Yvonne Owen, and on many an occasion has taken the writer of this post under her motherly wing as well.

Why have these little things been written down?

Well, because small things, small and humble persons are not forgotten before God, who considers them so important that His Angel Scribes write them down inscribing each name in golden lettering in the book of life.

During this Centenary Year of 2023 many photographs will be taken, many words, hopefully, written down which will endure, carefully laid up within the archives for years and generations yet to come preserving those little snapshots and memories of shy, little people behind the scenes.

Others Who Wrote it Down

In my former book, in my former book , Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven

Acts 1. 1

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

John 21. 24

Where the Lord Promises to Write it Down

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
“I will be their God , and they will be my people.l

Jeremiah 31.we

Memo to Self

Keep The Memory Write it Down

scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible N.I.V.

What can we say

His Majesty King Charles 111

What can we say?

How shall we pray?

Whoever we are, whatever our status we all pass through this world but once. None of us can stay.

All of us know what it is to pass through the darkest valley but the Good Shepherd walks with His Sheep, caring for our sadness all the way…. in His earthly walk Jesus also passed through that darkest valley. The Son of Man wept for His father Joseph, the Carpenter of Nazareth, for his cousin John the Baptist and for his friend Lazarus, the brother of Martha and Mary of Bethany.

In our prayers let us remember that Kings know sadness too and pray for our new King that he may know our Shepherds care all the days of his life, and that we with His Majesty may follow the Shepherd and be led on the right paths.
Amen

This was shared to a small group of prayerful friends not all belonging to St Giles Church in Rowley but all beloved servants of the Lord Jesus Christ who taught all who follow Him to take the humblest place … as Jesus. truly the Servant King did amongst men and women.

Many tears have been shed for Her Majesty our late Queen Elizabeth II,.. who also shed during her lifetime many tears… In weeping, we should recall the beautiful precious tears Jesus wept at the tomb of Lazarus. Holy and precious they sanctify the tears of all who weep…

God counts our tears precious, and precious to us who weep this promise

Then the Lord God will wipe away the tears from all faces

Isaiah 25.v.8 NRSV

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee

‘God Save the Queen’

Words from Reverend John Bridge as St Giles gets ready to celebrate the 70 Years Reign of our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth II

John writes,

This year we celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee, 70 years as Queen, and whether you believe that her role is a call from God, it is certain that as Queen, she is ‘set apart’ in her position as monarch and Supreme Governor of the Church of England.

The Jubilee will be celebrated around the world and especially in the Commonwealth countries. It’s tempting to call Britain and the Commonwealth a Queendom, but apparently a Queendom is not a kingdom ruled by a Queen, but one where the line of succession always runs through the female line.

 

When the Queen celebrated 60 years on the throne, she said in a special message released for that occasion: “

“As I mark sixty years as your Queen, I dedicate myself anew to your service. I hope that we will all be reminded of the power of togetherness and the convening strength of family, friendship and good neighbourliness.”

 

It was a remarkable statement and I was especially struck by the words “convening strength” in the Queen’s message. Daily experience often seems to suggest that we are a society of strangers.

 

But over the past 70 years the Monarchy has proved over and over again its “convening strength” and a capacity to encourage the development of a community which can give colour and encouragement to our individual lives.

 

Monarchy of course has ancient and biblical roots from the time that Zadok the priest and Nathan the prophet anointed Solomon King and all the people cried “God save the King”. What we celebrate as we remember Queens Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee is part of something ancient and stands for continuity and rituals over many centuries.

 

During the 70 years of the Queens reign our world and our country have changed profoundly. The Empire abroad has declined dramatically, and at home we have an ever-changing multi-cultural society. The demise of the old world and the arrival of the new, has involved sometimes painful adjustments.

 

But the Queen and the Royal Family have reached out to this new and evolving British community with quiet dignity (apart from the odd gaff by Prince Phillip!), which provides a focus for continuing and expanding the respect of everyone who lives in our country, everyone who is our neighbour, and so has helped the peaceful transformation of our national identity and maintained the unity that Jesus often speaks about.

 

The celebrations that will be happening over the weekend at the start of June suggests that monarchy is not just something ancient, but something modern and relevant as well.  

 

The Queen embodies themes in our common life together; the themes of birth and death, love and loss. To place such a person as the Queen and the Monarchy at the heart of our life as a nation is to honour humanity above all things and above all divisive ideologies and party politics.

 

And in this way our constitution is very modern. It is common for many heads of state to try and combine political power with the aura and special status that comes from representing the whole nation. I’m not sure that’s something we can say about Boris Johnson. 

 

In the United Kingdom our head of state, our Queen is very different. What her reign represents honours humanity with some very definite characteristics of the kind which bind a community together.

 

 

Our community includes people of different faiths and of no faith. But a profound relationship with God can only be developed by those who have freely chosen to respond to His call. It is a Christian trait to be tolerant because we believe so much in the importance of the free response to God’s call.

 

While there is scepticism whenever those in the political realm invoke God, it has been possible for the Queen with her very different role to be steadily more explicit in her Christmas broadcasts about her own faith in Jesus Christ which sustains her work.

 

The cost of this call and way of life is so great that it is right to regard it in sacrificial terms. The job has been done with conspicuous dedication over the past 70 years, and her whole life in the public eye. The Queen embodies the truth at the heart of our life as a nation that the kingdom of God and a humane society is built, yes by political power and policy, but also and perhaps most profoundly by the human touch, loving and unwearied service, and attention to others.

 

Christian monarchy today embodies not a set of policies or the pinnacle of a hierarchical social order but a life, a fully human life, lived in the presence and calling of God who dignifies all humanity. Such a life which is open to us all is the essential ingredient from which the Kingdom; God’s plan for the human race, grows and remains unified.

 

The Queens Platinum Jubilee then is a time to speak about those things and remind ourselves and others about community, about service and love of others. 

 

St Peter sums it all up when he writes: “Honour everyone, Love the Community, Fear God and Honour the Sovereign”. Amen.

Running on Grace

Nicky: “Runng late again! But see you SOON”

Jean: “Wish I could run”

Nicky: ” I don’t run anymore But know I need to start running more – towards Jesus”

Nicky is the younger with husband, two young adult children and a job as a Teaching Assistant keeping her on the go No time for running Shoes.

Jean is the the older woman, who can only sigh for the times when ‘The Springfield Whippet” was her nickname.

Revd Barrie just recovered from Covid, regularly dons his running shoes and to ease his way back to fitness is preparing to deliver the Easter ‘flyers’ through Rowley’s letter boxes.

“It will do him good,” Dr Katie, Barrie’s wife told Churchwarden, Yvonne.

So three people, five with Yvonne who does her running, her way, and Dr Katie all running, ON GRACE.

Everyone entered in the race of life is running on GRACE.

And I run toward the goal to take the victory of the calling of God from on high in Christ Jesus

Philippians 3:14 ~ my paraphrase

As we all know life sometimes trips us up, gets us down. I share the following story, a true one from a faithful runner who knows trips, falls, tears and many smiles in the hope that it may encourage someone.

“I have always known God’s secret stairs. You know the ones I mean; he comes down them sometimes to sit on the one just outside our bedroom door and listen to our prayers. I have always known those stairs, stone ones, marble ones stretching from his house in heaven, perhaps the self-same ones Jacob saw when he laid his head on his stony pillow at Bethel, Well, I was so tired, so low in spirits, that I pressed my face into my pillow and just cried. One of those times when you don’t have the words to make the prayers, even if you knew how to pray… so I just cried. Then I heard the footsteps. Someone, a man’s footsteps, running down those secret stores, down, down they came swiftly like a man on an urgent errand, right down, straight past my bedroom door, fading into silence. I stopped crying. I think my heart may have stopped momentarily. Had Jesus passed me by? Then the footsteps began again, from a long, long way down, – this time running upwards to come to a stop right outside the door. A tap on the door,

“Everything all right in there? Really thought you’d slipped right down to the bottom there. Didn’t you know I would be right with you?”

The person who tells this story, remembers laughing with joy at this point; and says no matter how bad things get, however much we want to give up, we should just listen out for his footsteps on the secret stairs. When we need him most and cannot run for Jesus or run to him because of lack of fitness in our body, heart or mind, at our lowest point The Lord will always come running to us.

O God, make speed to save us.

O Lord, make haste to help us.

From Common Worship – Evening Prayer

From Me to You~ Words for Advent ~ John

Words from our Vicar, Revd. John Bridge as Advent Begins

Lift up your hearts to the coming King

The start of December means that Advent is upon us, Christmas not far off, the season of joy, friendship and celebration. But the reality is often of family and financial pressures, a world where consumerism takes the place of preparing for the coming of Christ. And this year we have the added threat of renewed COVID restrictions which may or may not change our plans.

Advent is a very busy time of year, and it’s easy to think that maybe Jesus could have born when there wasn’t so much else going on! But it’s important that we try to make time to open our hearts and prepare for the coming of Christ.

The prophet Isaiah writes, “The people who walked in darkness
   have seen a great light;
those who lived in a land of deep darkness—
   on them light has shined.”

Whilst Isaiah acknowledges that we all sometimes experience dark times, he also looks forward to the idea of a coming light.

Isaiah writes about a coming event that will bring great joy. So what is Isaiah looking forward to? It seems that God is announcing a birth, and a coronation or enthronement of an earthly king who will be proclaimed as God’s son.

There are various expressions that Isaiah uses (9:6); ‘Wonderful Counsellor’ speaks of potential achievements of a king. ‘Mighty God’ implies a divine king. ‘Everlasting Father’ means that this saviour will be a father, a protector. And ‘Prince of Peace’ means freedom from war.

It’s hardly surprising that early Christians applied these words to Jesus. Just as the author of this section of Isaiah is looking forward to a new ruler, a new kind of king, so we are looking forward to this coming Advent to make space for Christ. It’s important that we try to make space for a fresh encounter with Jesus at Advent. I think that’s why the gospel accounts of his birth offer so many different angles from which to view the birth of Christ- the perspective of the parents, his aunt and uncle, shepherds doing a days work, far away wise men and nearby despots. Even the perspective of prophets, such as Isaiah, from centuries before Jesus’ birth.

All of these different perspectives help us to have a fresh vision of the coming Christ. There are three themes that we find in Isaiah and which also run through Advent.

First, waiting, it is important to wait on God. It is important to talk to God about how we feel. And it also important to spend some time in prayer and silence and wait for him to respond to us.

Second, Patience, as we wait on God we must be patient. Those reading about the king that Isaiah prophesied would see no fulfilment until centuries after it was written. Hopefully we won’t have to wait that for long for answers to prayer.

Third, Watchfulness, whilst we wait on God it is important to keep watch for God, to see him in those around us, to think of something that we can look forward too and thank God for it.

The season of Advent is about waiting, watching and patience. When we pray it can be difficult sometimes to be patient, it is difficult to wait and watch. But there is value in doing these things which during Advent may bring us closer to God and to a renewed sense of the miracle of Christmas in the coming of our Saviour

Another New Day

So here hath been dawning
Another blue day:
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?
Out of eternity
This new day is born;
Into eternity,
At night, will return.

2 Behold it aforetime
No eye ever did:
So soon it forever
From all eyes is hid.
Here hath been dawning
Another blue day:
Think, wilt thou let it
Slip useless away?
Amen.

Life today is very different from the 1800s when this poem/hymn was written by Thomas Carlyle, the Scottish Historian 1795-1881.

But the words came into my mind at first light . We sang this at Morning Assembly in Junior School.

Psalm 95, also known as the Venite used to be sung in St Giles at Morning Prayer, I miss those days too… the words most recalled from that Psalm are “Today, if only you would hear his voice. Do not harden your hearts…” As the Psalm says the people of God did testing (provoking) God’s anger with their constant grumbling and complaining.

Starting the day with a grumble, a moan or worse still the grumbles and moans of all our yesterdays… is so not good for our Soul… deadening to our mind… its like a dam blocking the stream and flow of the Lord’s mercy, grace peace and joy. The best medicine I can think for this comes, in the opening words of the same Psalm, 95 I am quoting this from the NIV

“Come, let us sing for joy to the LORD; let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation.

Let us come before Him with thanksgiving, and extol Him with music and song.”

St Giles looks forward to being blessed with the gift of singing eagerly once again… but in the meantime there is nothing to prevent any of us from beginning each day with God’s good medicine for our Soul… a song 🎵. One from all our yesterday’s is just fine but a new one, Today’s Song, even better.

With Christian Love to all who read this post from God’s People at St Giles, Rowley Regis.

Sunny smile flowers