Stainglass window
Christmas 2011
3rd Dec Advent Party
12th Dec @ 2pm
Carol Service at Oak tree Court
16th Dec @ 2.30pm
Carol Service at Stratford Court
17th Dec @11am
Carol Singing outside Co-Op
18th Dec Nativity and Christingle Service and Carol Service
24th Dec @ 11pm (Service starts at 11.30pm
United Service at URC Etwall Rd
25th Dec @10am
Christmas Day Service
The fellowship of the Holy Spirit
Dear Friends,
This month, on Sunday30th, we celebrate Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirits, as described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 2.
The phrase ‘The Holy Spirit’ conjures up all sorts of different images for people, dependent on their Christian background and experience.
Some of these images, it has to be said, are not always that helpful.
Certainly the most familiar phase in terms of the number of
times we say it, is the third part of the Grace: we wish upon each other ‘the
fellowship of the Holy Spirit’
On that first Day of Pentecost as described by Luke, all the people who had gathered in Jerusalem from different places across the Roman Empire heard the message of Jesus as if it were being spoken in their own ‘native language’. God could have given the crowd a universal language, but he didn’t. Rather, for a moment, the notoriously heavy Galilean dialect of the disciples disappeared, and each member of the crowd heard the message as if it were coming from their local area back home. That’s what startled them.
These Pentecostal tongues were a pointer to the way in which the Holy Spirit was going to break down the barriers, and create a new order. God had no ambitions to homogenise the peoples of the world into a uniform Christian culture. On the contrary, the plan was to bridge cultures, and to overcome the alienation they create without disposing of the diversity they represent.
The Jew would still be a Jew, the Greek still a Greek, yet
they would come together by means of something so extraordinary the first
Christians had to invent a phase to describe it: ‘the fellowship oh the
Holy Spirit’
At Pentecost the disciples preached ONE message which was heard in many languages. As the book of Acts progresses, we read that the message produced ONE Church in many cultures. And in the Book of Revelations, we discover it ultimately produced ONE multitude gathered. around the throne of God from every tribe and nation and people: ONE community representing the whole range of human culture praising ONE multilingual God. That is the Bible’s vision of eternity. That is what the Holy Spirit intends to create.
There are a number of opportunities for us this month to
visibly demonstrate the ‘fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ .
On Sunday 9th, to mark the beginning of Christian Aid week,
there will be a united service at St Peters, at 7.00pm.
On Sunday 16th, we have a united Baptist cluster service at
Yardley Wood Baptist Church at 6.30pmn. It
would be easy for us not to bother to join in these times, for we could say that
the rest of the people there are very different from us, and see and do things
differently. But to opt out in that
way is a complete denial of the fellowship of the Holy spirit.
For God’s plan is just this: that those who are different, and who see
and do things differently, are brought together. So , to use the Apostle Paul’s memorable phase from
Ephesians4, ‘make the effort’ to be there.
And then on Pentecost Sunday itself (May 30th) YOU are invited to come along to the Manse (43 Stonerwood Avenuee) att 5.00pm for tea-another opportunity for those of us who are different to come together
Next time you wish someone ‘the fellowship of the Holy Spirit’ remember what you are saying. And we can start now. Do something to break down the divisions: Make the effort!
Your friend and pastor,
Jonathan Calvert
.