ministers page

from the Minister : Revd. Malcolm Hickox

May 2008

Dear friends,

“I hear you’re going away for three months.” A comment that’s been made to me by one or two people over recent weeks as news of my forthcoming sabbatical has circulated round the church. Occasionally, it has sounded as if I am about to go off to the Amazonian Rain Forest for an extended holiday or on a round the world cruise – a nice thought, but not quite the case! So what’s all this about sabbaticals, what am I planning to do and why?

Sabbaticals have been introduced into many different types of organisations, because they are recognised as a way of re-energising people by allowing them to explore a different aspect of their work or undertake some form of study. In most organisations they are something for which you apply and seek permission to undertake. However, several years ago the Methodist Conference decided that sabbaticals should be made compulsory for all presbyters and deacons in their 10^th year of ministry and then in every subsequent 7^th year. Although I am in my tenth year of ‘ordained ministry’, I first started working for the Methodist Church in 1974 and apart for three years with the YMCA, the last 34 years of employment have been within Methodism, and this will be my first sabbatical!

The Methodist Church recognises that a great deal of ministry is about giving, which cannot be sustained indefinitely without also receiving. Hence, the church’s guidelines for sabbaticals require that ministers take ‘time away from their usual day-to-day job, for further study, reflection, recreation and some renewal. It may take the form of a retreat, a course, visiting other places and churches, reading, or a combination of these and other things.’ It is also recognises that ‘for a sabbatical to be effective the person taking it must feel that their work is covered and their family are being supported.’ A local sabbatical support group is therefore appointed to oversee all the practical issues and in my case it comprises: David Booth (convenor), Rosemary Dover, Tim Macquiban and Mervyn Liverside, together with Christine and myself. All the arrangements, including the programme for my three months, have to be approved by the Methodist District, to whom I have to provide a report at the end.

Like writing this letter each month, when faced with choosing how to spend my three months, I started with a blank sheet of paper. Some exciting and imaginative initial thoughts had to be put into perspective with the constraints of finance and family life, not least with Richard’s ‘A’ levels being this summer. In the end I chose to focus on an exploration of contemporary worship, which I hope to feed into to the life of SMc over the next few years. In recent months we have been experimenting with our digital projectors, but we have also been talking about developing new patterns of worship both on Sundays and also on other occasions during the week to complement the more traditional approach. The ‘Fresh Expressions’ initiative has also encouraged us to experiment and we have already seen the benefits of our MAD (Music, Art & Drama) mornings. All these require a greater variety of resources and so I am intending to do three things: to catalogue all the existing material I have so as to make it easier to access; to undertake some reading about new developments; and to visit other churches who are experimenting in this way. I have already been in contact with circuits across our District and I am looking forward to experiencing some of their new patterns of worship rather than just reading about them.

Of course, the other important dimension of my sabbatical is refreshment and the break from meetings, the opportunity to worship rather than just lead worship, and to get a better balance between ‘work and play’. However, I also intend to undertake a mini pilgrimage following the path of some prominent Christians in the North East of England: Aiden (Holy Island), Bede (Jarrow), Wesley ( Newcastle-upon-Tyne ), Cuthbert ( Durham ) and finishing with Hilda ( Whitby ). There will be others along the way, but I hope that out of this exploration might come the opportunity for others to join me on a church trip next year. If you are interested please let me know. An opportunity has also arisen for me to join a Pilgrimage following in the steps of St Paul and the Book of Revelation, but that will be later in the year.

The Leadership Team have put in place measures to cover my work from mid May to mid August. Many things will just happen as normal, but for each area there will be someone to contact (full details on the notice boards), below are some key details. If in doubt please speak to David Booth.

I am very grateful for the opportunity the sabbatical provides, but can I encourage everyone to reflect upon how they sustain their Christian faith and discipleship. Sometimes we get so involved in ‘doing’ and forget that we need to time to ‘be’. We need time for reflection, like the Quiet Days at Chalfont; time for prayer, individually or collectively with the Midweek Prayer group; time for personal reading or for discussion in a house group. In the coming year I hope that we will be offering more help in this area, but why not take your own first steps now.

Every blessing

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April 2008

Dear Friends

Where there is no vision, the people perish’

[Proverbs 29:18 King James Bible]

It would be interesting to discover where most people look for inspiration or where they turn to for a vision of what might be possible in life. Whether it is in relation to our personal lives, the life of our church, our community or our country we all need a set of values or principles to guide us and some sort of notion of where we should be heading. The philosophy of ‘I’m not harming anyone so I can do what I like’ doesn’t hold water when faced with a society that is becoming increasingly fragmented, intolerant, and anti-social within a world where the rich are growing richer and the poor poorer. To use that well-know expression: ‘to do nothing is to take sides’!

‘The Passion’ on BBC 1 during Holy Week received significant coverage and started some interesting debates. But for those of us who take our vision, our values, our lead from Jesus, the challenge remains to show how a story 2000 years old still has a relevance today. In a world short on role models we need to highlight lives which have had a Christ-like pattern to them. One such person was Martin Luther King, who was assassinated 40 years ago on 4^th April 1968, aged 39. Whilst his most famous speech, ‘I have a dream’ was delivered at a Civil Right rally parts of it still resonate today:

“... I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: ‘We hold these truths to be self-evident; that all men are created equal.’

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

….. I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the colour of their skin but by the content of their character.

….. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plains, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together.”

August 28,1963 Washington , D.C

“.... I don't know what will happen now. We've got some difficult days ahead. But it doesn't matter with me now, because I've been to the mountain top. And I don't mind. Like anybody, I would like to live a long life; longevity has its place. But I'm not concerned about that now. I just want to do God's will. And he's allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I've looked over. And I've seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. And I'm happy tonight, I'm not worried about anything. I'm not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.”

April 3,1968 Memphis , Tennessee

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March 2008

Dear friends,

Many of us have felt caught out by the speed with which Lent and Easter have come upon us. I understand that this is as early as Easter can be, but Easter is all about being caught out; about being unprepared; about being taken by surprise and having one’s preconceptions shattered.

This year our Good Friday service will be slightly earlier at 10.00 a.m. to allow us to participate in an act of witness with Christians from other churches in Salisbury . Following a short act of worship outside the Guildhall at 11.15 a.m. there will be a silent procession to the Cathedral. Three large crosses will be carried and the route will take us through the shopping area of the city centre before arriving at the Cathedral for midday , where there will be the opportunity either to join in the Cathedral service or to go home.

For most people in Salisbury this most holy of days in the Christian calendar will just be another day as they go about their usual activities. No doubt there will be some who will look on our activities with puzzlement and I suspect that we will overhear people saying, “What are they protesting about?” The subtle difference between an act of witness and a demonstration is not always obvious and you might well ask what sort of statement we are trying to make. Are we for something or against something? Are we promoting a particular cause or simply wanting people to pause and take stock of their lives? How might the sight of three large crosses touch their lives and indeed, ours?

On the Sunday after Christmas in our morning worship we remembered the flight of Mary and Joseph with Jesus into Egypt and Herod’s massacre of the children. ‘A voice is heard in Ramah, lamenting and weeping bitterly: it is Rachel weeping for her children, refusing to be comforted for her children, because they are no more.’ The prophet Jeremiah’s words quoted in Matthew’s gospel and a reminder that Jesus was born into a real world with a message that speaks to the deepest needs of humanity. And in order to demonstrate that fact, the Church chose as its most sacred symbol a cross, the device by which Jesus was put to death. It’s an extraordinary idea, but even more baffling to those outside the Christian tradition is the claim that what happened on the cross was a supreme demonstration of God's power. How can someone dying in agony be a demonstration of God's power?

One of the ironies of the timing of Easter this year is that Maundy Thursday, 20^th March, falls on the 5^th anniversary of the start of the war with Iraq . We are immediately faced with a contrast, which is why various Christian groups are inviting us to mark the eve of this anniversary with another act of witness in London on Wednesday 19^th March. We may see reports on our television screens, but the bare statistics of the last five years speak for themselves:

· 1.2 million Iraqis killed directly and indirectly. As a result of the destruction of infrastructure tens of thousands experience malnutrition and disease.

· A mass exodus of people fleeing from the ongoing violence - 2.2 million displaced internally, more than 2 million fled to neighbouring countries.

· Tens of thousands of Iraqis detained, many without trial – a major concern highlighted by a UN Human Rights report in June 2007.

· Targeted attacks on Christian churches and their leaders. The Iraqi Christian community of 800,000 reduced to between 400,000 and 600,000.

· 174 British, 3,923 US, and 133 other military personnel killed in Iraq between March 2003 and 14^th January 2008 .

· According to The Ministry of Defence (MoD) the UK has spent £5 billion on the war in Iraq over and above the UK ’s defence budget.

The war in Iraq not only raises questions about the use and abuse of political and military power, it raises questions about how God's power operates in the world. Much of the Bible is about humanity’s search to discover the rules by which God uses power and then Jesus appears, addressing God as Father. The implication is that God isn’t some detached remote power, but that God has personality and a presence. Colin Morris suggests that this divine personality places limits on God’s use of power. Because God is goodness God cannot do evil; because God is love God cannot hate; because God is truth God cannot lie; because God is wisdom God cannot do foolish things. In other words, God's power is totally shaped by God’s personality.

The Gospel writers attempted to record their understanding of God's power at work through the person of Jesus. So we have the highly charged entry of Jesus into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, demonstrating ‘kingship’ on a beast of burden - power shaped by humility. Then in that upper room on the day before the Passover, John states that Jesus knew that all power in heaven and on earth had been given to him. So how does he demonstrate that power? He takes a towel and washes his disciples' feet - power shaped by love and care for others in the menial tasks. By contrast our society appears to be obsessed with power, seemingly craving the power God possesses, but without having the personality of God demonstrated in the life of Jesus.

There are plenty of examples of power which seeks to dominate and coerce. The image of God in Jesus, reigning from the cross is not only absurd it scandalises God by its sense of impotence and yet the highest exercise of power is a willingness to refrain from using it. God doesn’t use power to dominate or suppress or ruthlessly control us, God uses power to change the human heart without smashing the human will. In the words of Colin Morris, God's love is capable of bending proud human wills that iron bars could not break, and so make human beings fit to handle power. Which is why the cross symbolises God’s power to save humanity.

Every blessing to you this Eastertide

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February 2008

Dear friends,

The early Christians were known as people of ‘The Way’, which suggests that they were not simply a sect within Judaism who had a different set of beliefs they were a group of people who followed a particular way of life. The image of the Church as ‘The Pilgrim People’ is a picture which I have written about previously in the Newsletter and is one which not only has a strong affinity with the idea of Christians being people of ‘The Way’ but was at the centre of our church life when SMc was refurbished in 1992. At a very practical level this meant that the Sanctuary was designed to have flexible seating which could be moved into different arrangements appropriate for the worship and to signify that we are not a static people. The furniture was also made so that no item takes more than two people to move.

The idea of movement and faith, or journeys and pilgrimage is not just a New Testament image for God’s people it is deeply rooted in the Hebrew Scriptures. Time and again the writers return to the Exodus as being the example of God’s saving acts and the forty year journey through the wilderness as being the experience which formed them into a nation, a people of the Covenant. It was in journeying together that they discovered the true nature of God and what it meant to be God’s people. And you could say that it was when they became static, when they became settled and comfortable, that they forgot about God and their relationship with God went wrong.

At the beginning of January in our Covenant Service we committed ourselves to a particular type of Journey with God. It was not so much a recognition of God’s claim upon our lives as of us choosing to offer the whole of our lives to God. The journey is understood in terms of us travelling with God into a pattern of discipleship where we allow God to lead us into the places, the actions and the communities where we can be of most service to God.

As we approach Lent we are reminded of another journey of faith, that of Jesus in the wilderness. The Gospels portray it as a time of testing, of reflection and commitment; a time of preparation for the journey from Galilee towards Jerusalem and the cross. As we move through Lent we recall the cost of that journey and celebrate Jesus’ love for God and for humanity which the events of Holy Week demonstrate. It may be a familiar story, but it still has the power to take hold of us and move the inner most part of our lives.

George MacLeod, Founder of the lona Community, summed it up by saying:

The Bible is the most profound dramatisation of you ... The historic story of Christ, the outside story of Christ, suddenly emerges as the inner story of yourself - and it's this inner story, this inner parallel, that really makes the Bible inspired, so that to your condition it becomes the living Word of God.’

In the forward to the Iona book of Lent and Easter readings, Kathy Galloway suggests that there is always the temptation to read these words and, indeed, to read the Bible, as being about the dramatisation of me, and Christ's story as the inner story of myself. She goes on to say that it is precisely because we can discern in the scriptures our own personal experiences of loss and love and betrayal, of suffering and hope, mediated to us through the experiences of other people in other times and places, that their stories, and above all the Christ story, have such power to comfort and encourage, to chasten and challenge and inspire us.

But, as Kathy Galloway points out, there is a danger that if we restrict ourselves to a simple personal or individual reading of the story we run the risk of missing the point completely. Most of us have moments when we feel that 'no one suffers quite like me', whereas we are actually more like everybody else than we often care to admit. And the story is actually a dramatisation of us, not just me - the inner story of ourselves. In other words, in the story of Jesus we find humankind in all its diversity and similarity; and the way of the cross takes many forms as we witness in the relentless parade of human misery that we see on our nightly news. Sadly, the experience of loss and love and betrayal, of suffering and hope, is universal.

The wilderness experience of the Hebrew People was a community experience into which God revealed his message through the Ten Commandments and the leadership of Moses and others. Our journey through Lent, Holy Week and into Easter is shaped by the story of Jesus, but it is also undertaken in a real world and in solidarity with the corporate experience of humanity. Kathy Galloway again suggests that through prayer, reading, meditation and solitude, we may withdraw and reflect on the wilderness places in our hearts and lives. We may remember and name our own temptations and frailties and hear again the call to conversion, to turn as the prodigal son did and head for home. But we also need the company of others to root us firmly in our humanity, so that we might discover that it is only in the sharing of our human vulnerability and frailty that our potential for resurrection is to be found.

We are offering a variety of opportunities for study and reflection during Lent which will reflect on The Lord’s Prayer. It is no coincidence that we start that prayer with ‘Our Father’ rather than ‘My Father’. If we are to live out the promises that we undertook in the Covenant Service we will need to find the strength to journey forward with God. Let me encourage you all to set aside some time for reflection and study this Lent.

Every blessing

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December 2007

Dear friends,

Back in the 1960s, New Christian, a radical Christian journal, celebrated its first anniversary with an editorial saying that the time had come for angels to go: ‘Their removal from the pulpits, the Sunday School lessons and the liturgies, would surely be a real gain.' Not unexpectedly, it provoked more correspondence than any other article. I guess if we are honest, there's a large part of us which gets confused when we start talking about angels and as Bishop John Robinson suggested at the time, ‘For most ordinary people angels merely add to the cocoon of fantasy and unreality in which the Christian gospel is wrapped. So far from making the Faith more real, they undoubtedly make it more unreal, remote and airborne.’ You might add that with the pantomime season about to start there is always the potential for an angel to be confused with the fairy who appears to offer protection or the genie who grants wishes!

Charles Wesley (whose tercentenary we shall be celebrating on 18^th December) penned the lines: ‘Hark! The herald-angels sing glory to the new-born king’ and ‘Let earth and heaven combine, angels and men agree’, which we will no doubt sing over Christmas. This year’s Christmas stamps also feature angels and the Salisbury Churches Together Nativity Scene for the Market Square has a huge angel. So what should we be trying to communicate about angels and is it worth travelling this difficult path? In his book, ‘But that I can’t believe’ John Robinson suggests that it is important to interpret what belief in angels is really about, but only in a way that adds to, rather than detracts from, the reality and richness of life. In doing so he looks back to the Middle Ages when everyone believed in angels, taking them literally, and theologians debated obscure points about ‘Angelology’. With the Renaissance, angels became domesticated, appearing in paintings as cherubs - sweet little boys with wings and blissful smiles. Then, with the Romantic Movement, they became sentimentalized as the sexless creatures who float through pre-Raphaelite paintings and stained-glass windows. Perhaps it’s no wonder, as Robinson suggests, that by this time they had become so thoroughly vapid and meaningless that it's hardly surprising that most people have now dismissed them altogether.

Even in our scientific age we can’t deny what might be around the universe, but the Christian faith doesn’t call us to put our belief in unidentified flying objects. Neither does believing in angels, any more than believing in Adam and Eve, require us to accept the existence of actual beings who are or were around the world as we are. In the Bible’s picture language angels, like Adam and Eve, are ways of representing certain convictions - theological not scientific - about the meaning of life. Robinson suggests that they stand for the belief that there's always a spiritual as well as a material aspect to life and that the entire universe is shot through with God and God’s living activity.

As Middle Eastern literature, the Bible frequently uses these ‘word pictures’, and angels are portrayed as a sort of communication system between God (in heaven) and humans (on earth). Hence, the Greek word for angel, angellos, means a messenger and to get about they are imagined as having wings. But when angels appear to men and women on earth there is nothing to suggest that they look different from ordinary people. In fact more often than not they are portrayed as ordinary people, either real or in dreams, who are seen at the time or subsequently as having something to say from God. That’s what happened to Abraham when he met three men and, according the Epistle to the Hebrews, ‘entertained angels unaware’. In the Bible, if God was seen to be in an event, then the human agents or interpreters of it were identified as angels. So an angel isn’t about a type of being so much as an action. Which is why we use the phrase ‘be an angel’ not to tell someone to ‘go and get themselves wings', but to 'do something angelic'.

John the Baptist, didn't have wings, but he was a man sent from God and in that sense an angel. And the Apostle Paul applies the term to Christian ministry. In the Bible it’s often the case that angels come in and out of everyday events entirely naturally, which is one way of conveying the conviction that God is constantly present in ordinary life. One interpretation of Matthew’s nativity story of an angel appearing to Joseph in a dream to warn him of Herod is simply that Joseph had a dream in which he was told to get out quickly, and that in this he saw 'the hand of God'. The way the Bible registers these incidents suggests that they weren't just accidents or coincidences and to talk of angels is similar to how we talk of providence. In other words angels suggest God being at work wonderfully, graciously.

Peter Rush, the artist who has created the new Nativity Scene, has said that he doesn’t believe in angels, but through his sculpture he is trying to convey God’s presence over Mary, Joseph and Jesus. What about us? Well, I guess all too often we take bible stories at face value and life becomes very pedestrian. We treat the Bible as English literature and rationalise everything, forgetting that like the hymns of Charles Wesley, it contains poetry designed to evoke deep mystery, wonder and the incredible truth of God’s commitment to us. So as you sing the carols this Christmas and hear again stories from Scripture allow your mind to be stretched and lifted to another level. And if you stand under the nativity scene in the Market Square why not enter into conversation with others around you about what it says about God and the birth of Jesus!

Every blessing,

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November 2007

Dear friends,

Catch a Perry Como wash him out in Omo hang him on the line to dry,

If he gets starchy call him Liberace, Omo is the best to buy.

A little ditty we used to sing when I was young to the tune of the song ‘Catch a falling star’. If you’re too young and don’t know what I’m talking about then I’m sorry, but maybe you remember the advert which said: ‘A Mars a day helps you work, rest and play.’ It eventually had to be withdrawn because there was no way of scientifically proving the advert’s claim! I can also remember a poster outside our church in Croydon from forty years ago which carried the slogan: ‘A Double Diamond works blunders’. It was issued by the Christian Citizenship Department of the Methodist Church in response to the 1968 brewery advert accompanied by the song: ‘A Double Diamond works wonders, works wonders, works wonders, a Double Diamond works wonders, so drink one today!’ set to the tune ‘There's a hole in my bucket’

It’s not always easy to account for what stays in one’s memory and why you remember some things and not others - that was always my excuse when faced with school examinations! There are things we have absorbed through our upbringing or through different experiences that have become deeply ingrained within us, so much so that they shape our attitudes and our beliefs. The way the Methodist Church discusses the use of alcohol has certainly changed in the last forty years and most churches would think twice before using the sort of poster I referred to above. But often ‘the world at large’ still views Methodists as ‘those people who don’t drink, don’t gamble, don’t do this and don’t do that’! I’m not suggesting that we should not take a stand on what we believe to be right, far from it, but I do worry when people describe us by what we don’t do rather than by the positive things we seek to do. Image and ‘spin’ and style have come to have negative connotations in the political arena and the plea is for more substance and policies. From the perspective of the Church we might ask how in a modern sceptical world we can present what we believe in such a way as to encourage conversation and debate rather than being dismissed as irrelevant.

When Greg Dyke became Director General of the BBC in 2000 he was confronted by the image of Lord Reith, not just his portrait in the Council Chamber, but his legacy and philosophy which still shaped much of the corporation’s activities. The fascination with his illustrious predecessor eventually led Greg Dyke to present a television programme on Reith’s life, which was broadcast on BBC 4 in April this year. It was as result of this programme that we invited Greg Dyke to come and speak to us at SMc. Reith hated the idea of television, but eventually allowed its development. One could guess what he might say about the current developments and highly competitive market place in which numerous channels compete with each other. His vision of the BBC existing to ‘educate, inform, entertain’ is still part of the corporation’s current mission statement, but what does it mean today?

The BBC’s Royal Charter has just been renewed for another ten years, but in recent days the current Director General, Mark Thompson, has announced a programme of massive changes in order to balance the corporation’s budget. At the same time major questions have been asked about the activities of the BBC and ITV, with accusations about the ‘dumbing down’ of programmes, the bias of some news and current affairs reporting, and the place of religious broadcasting. We have also seen revelations about the manipulations of phone-in competitions and surveys indicating that ITV is making far fewer children’s programmes and substituting some rather dubious cartoon series. Most of us were brought up to implicitly trust the integrity, authority and accuracy of the BBC, but is that still the case and what do we expect from our broadcasters?

Sir Michael Checkland, another former BBC Director General, explored some of these issues when he was Vice President of the Methodist Conference in 1997. But in ten years much has changed and some of the key questions today centre on the future of Public Service Broadcasting, which is why we have asked Greg Dyke to speak on this important topic. In May 2005 he became chairman of HIT, a production company specializing in programmes for the under fives and with over 30 years in broadcasting he is well placed to contribute to the current debate. Rev Dr Andrew Wood, Chair of our Methodist District, will be joining us for the evening and will be steering through the second half of the programme, which will be an open conversation with Greg. I am delighted that Greg and Andrew are willing to fit this engagement into their busy schedules and warmly commend the evening to you (details elsewhere). I am also grateful to Greg for declining to accept any fee or expenses, enabling the proceeds from the evening to be given to charities selected by the Church Council.

As with the old Mars Bar adverts, Christians make great claims, in our case about the gospel, which cannot be proved scientifically. Like broadcasters today, we have a major concern for how we communicate, how we can be trusted and seen to be speaking with authority. What Greg Dyke has to say about broadcasting might also help us to reflect on the nature of the Church in a time of great change.

Every blessing,

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