April 2025 - E-Magazine
- The Team at Yate Parish
- Apr 4
- 12 min read
Please click below for a printable copy of the magazine:
A ray of hope for a church in crisis?
Over the last 50 years there has been a significant shift toward a godless society. In the 2001 census 72 percent of the population designated themselves Christian. By 2021 this had fallen to 47 percent. Church attendance is in steep decline with ageing congregations, further eroded by age-related illness, infirmity and death. The moral and cultural unravelling we have all witnessed during our lifetimes and the increasing secularisation of the church have also played a part. As secular life grows darker people feel lost, especially the young who often lack the prospects, opportunities, hope and family cohesion that we ‘boomers’ knew and took for granted. Such hopelessness and lack of direction can lead either to the lawlessness and violence we read about daily or to a thirst for a deeper meaning to life - in other words, a search for the spiritual. We need to understand why they don’t seek to satisfy this need within Christianity. Rather they seek fulfilment in any number of quasi-religious pursuits ranging from yoga, meditation, the natural world, mindfulness and mysticism. Even Wicca (white witchcraft) is increasing as a stated religion in the England and Wales census. If mysticism and the supernatural is what they seek what could be more mystical and supernatural than the virgin birth, the miracles of Christ and His resurrection from the dead?
There is however a pointer as to how we might bring the young into the Christian community. The Catholic church is reporting a resurgence of young people attending church regularly, but specifically in those churches which practice strict traditional rites and observances which give them the clarity, direction and sense of the infinite they seek and which is missing from secular life. This revival is also to be found in our great cathedrals which inspire a sense of awe, ‘otherness’ and permanence.
Can we in the Church of England learn from this? Perhaps a return to the reverence of ‘Thy’, ‘Thee’ and ‘Thou’ rather than the egalitarian ‘you’ and ‘your’ which I have always felt
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uncomfortable with because it feels as though we’re addressing God as equals. Perhaps a return to the use of incense to promote a sense of holiness and transcendence. Perhaps a return to sounding the trinity chime at the elevation of the host to focus the mind on the nature of Godhead and what is truly happening at that most mystical moment of the Eucharist. Perhaps a return to the profound and silent meditation of The Watch on Maundy Thursday.
Have we strayed too far from the spirituality and symbolism of our past? Is it time to turn back to traditional Christian practices? Just something to think about and perhaps debate among ourselves…………
Michaela Mackenzie |
A Great Night Out at St. James
On the evening of Monday 3rd March the pews in St. James were rocking to the music of the Avon Fire and Rescue Service Concert Wind Band. Opening with a rousing rendition of‘ ‘Colonel Bogey’, they treated us to a wonderful repertoire of British and American music including Disney themes, Andrew Lloyd Webber songs and Gershwin’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue’. A buffet supper, hot soups and cakes were served during the interval followed by a spectacular second half ending with Blaze Away (better known as the signature tune to Monty Python’s Flying Circus) and a finale of Status Quo’s ‘Rockin’ all over the World’, by which time the audience were clapping in time, swaying in their seats and waving hands in the air. It was a thoroughly joyous experience for everyone. One elderly member of our congregation told us it was the best night out he’d had for as long as he could remember…..what an accolade!
Our heartfelt thanks go to the whole band whose memorable performance raised £602 toward our organ restoration fund. |
Give a little bit together: breaking the vicious circle with giving
Each year we try really hard to come in on budget; most years we succeed but we are always conscious of lacking money to make small but essential improvements to our life as a church. The worry about money causes us to be scared to invest just in case we need to spend our reserves on running costs. We must pay our running costs as shown in the pie chart on page 6, but we also need to invest in our church to make it better. We are caught in a vicious circle. Worrying about costs leads to under-investing which leads to decline, which leads to less investment, which leads to steeper decline.
The chart shows a rough percentage breakdown of our costs. I will provide a more detailed breakdown for each church. You can see that two thirds of our costs are ministry: this is the parish office cost and the work of the clergy and lay people. It covers the cost of ministry in each church and the community. The next highest expense is staff and cleaning, followed by utilities and insurance. These are the everyday running costs that we must pay each month.
If 64 people across Yate Parish were to give the price of a cup of coffee per week, we could cover all our running costs and invest in the church. If we all play our part we can meet this challenge together.
When I first floated this idea to the wardens, one said that the target of 64 people across the whole parish donating an extra £3.50 per week is more than achievable. Members of the DCCs and PCC agreed. If we all give a little bit, together we can make our church financially stable.
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In each of our churches we have put up a poster with 64 cups of coffee. As people respond to our appeal to give £3.50 extra per week, we will fill in the cups. Filling in the coffee cups is an anonymous way of showing that people have acted, and we can see that together we are meeting the challenge.
Each church has some important projects that they want to pursue, all of which will make a big difference to the church and community. The fear of not being able to pay the bills holds us back, even when we do have the money or are just short.
St Mary’s want to have a warmer church St Nix want to replace their old chairs St James want an eco loo St Peters want to maintain the ancient building
All of these things are possible, but we need the security of a regular income to do it. In giving a cup of coffee each week, we will have the confidence to do these things.
I will be coming round the churches with Parish Giving forms over the next few weeks. You can fill these in and send them off by snail mail, or you can give via our website under the ‘Make a Donation’ tab. The Parish Giving Scheme does the gift aid automatically and takes a direct debit from your account on the day of your choosing. You can calculate your giving weekly, monthly or even annually. Please just make sure if you are a gift aider that you fill in the gift aid form.
Thank you to everyone who gives to the work of our church – together, by giving a little, we can make a lot of difference.
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What’s on at St James
Westerleigh Village Breakfasts The Friends of St James will be back in action from Saturday 12th April preparing delicious cooked breakfasts and lighter alternatives in the church. Make sure your diary shows the second Saturday each month from April to September so that you don’t miss any of these great community experiences. Come any time between 9 and 10.45 (last orders). If you’d like to walk it off afterwards, join a group setting off at 11 o’clock.
St George’s Supper St James DCC invite you to enjoy a lovely supper and short quiz in Westerleigh Village Hall on Saturday 26th April at 7pm. Contact Michaela to book your place –michaelamackenzie52@gmail.com 07974 094449.
Plants and cakes On Bank Holiday Monday 5th May the Westerleigh WI are holding a table-top sale in Westerleigh Village Hall from 1-3pm. Alongside refreshments and other WI and visiting tables you'll find the St James plant stall and cake stall. So put this in your diaries now, and come along to stock up your garden and tea-time larder. |
Mothers’ Union Yate Branch April 17th 2pm at St Mary’s Youth Centre A special Maundy Thursday Mothers’ Union Meeting. All members, friends and visitors will be welcome.
‘Lord, let me live a day at a time with your love determined from your will, my path illuminated by light, my faith grounded in your truth, my heart set on eternity’ Mothers’ Union Prayer Diary
Jacky Fredrickson 07501670265 |
Why God is not like Keir Starmer or any other of them for that matter.
Planes in the Air and Boots on the ground, these words should send a chill down our spines. As many of you know we have worked with the Ukrainian community in Yate for the last two and half years. Starting with a Christmas party and then with services of commemoration of the invasion and Holodomor (Ukrainian Genocide in the 1930s). We have also run a family club for the Ukrainians in the youth centre, which is now becoming a Ukrainian school run by a charity. I think it fair to say that we care about people no matter where they have come from. I have a son who is now 20, which I find quite disturbing for two reasons. Firstly because I can’t believe it is already 20 years since he was born. Secondly, I don’t want my son fighting or peace keeping in Ukraine. Why not? you may ask. Because I’m a father, and fathers don’t want their sons going off to war. When the head of the EU was asked if her children would join the military, she laughed at the question. It was unimaginable to her to have a son in the army. Keir Starmer has a son of a similar age to mine, is he worried about his son being inside the boots on the ground?
This situation reminds me of a documentary made during the Iraq war where Michael Moore went round congress with enlistment forms for the US army. He asked congressmen with children of fighting age if they would like to enlist their children. Unsurprisingly they all said no.
Whatever the rights or wrongs of military action in Ukraine, my point is that we often get frustrated by our rulers because they rarely bear the consequences of their decisions. There is a new term for this: luxury beliefs, where people believe things which |
have a negative impact on other people, but make them feel and look good. This may be a new term, but I don’t think that powerful people insulating themselves from the consequences of their decisions is anything new. Jesus, Moses and anyone else from the Bible would be familiar with this issue. It is as old as time itself.
People often point the figure at God and complain he is just like our leaders in the past or today. In fact, the ancient Greek and Pagan Gods were just like that, distant beings insulated from the sufferings and madness of our world. The Christian God is radically different. God creates the universe and gives us free will. We can create a wonderful world or hell on earth. To a greater or lesser extent, we as humans have done this. God creates a world where love is possible, but in doing so creates vulnerability. We can’t love someone without making ourselves vulnerable. During covid we tried as a society to remove vulnerability by making everyone safe. The greatest casualty of this policy was love. We exchanged love for safety and created a global prison.
God knew that a world without freedom and vulnerability would be a prison of a world without love. But this decision that God made has consequences. If you give free will, some people will be violent and vicious. If you create a world of vulnerability, injustice and pain are possible and even inevitable. If God were like Keir Starmer, taking decisions without personal risk, we would be right to hate him. That truly would be a God who doesn’t love us.
But, after making the choice to create the world the way it is, God made another choice. At Easter we celebrate this choice. God chose to send his son into our world at Christmas. God chose to put his son in danger, because he knew it was the only |
just thing to do. At Easter the consequences of this decision are played out. Jesus is not the God people wanted. They wanted one to defeat their enemies, but God wants us to love our enemies. In their anger and frustration, they turned on Jesus. The politicians at the time executed him because it was easier and they wanted him to go away.
We often think quite rightly about Jesus’ suffering at Easter. But what about God the father. God sent his son on this mission, God sent him into danger knowing the consequences. God the Father suffers like all fathers, he suffers the sufferings of his son.
One of the many messages of Easter is that God understands what it is to be human. God understands the stupidity of violence and injustice. God understands suffering because both Jesus and God have suffered together as a family. This Easter I ask you to pray for peace and reflect when our leaders speaking on how different they are to our King Jesus Christ. |
What was decided at DCC and PCC in March
St Nix DCC To buy 80 new Chairs for St Nix
St Mary’s DCC To install a combination lock on the kitchen and key safe for sound system and organ keys. To change the locks on the vestry and issue new keys in line with the key policy. To apply for a B-list faculty for the two screens near the pillars in St Mary’s and remove the rest of the screens
Yate Parish PCC To change the makeup of the DCCs and PCCs in line with the recommendations from the governance review. The makeup of the committees is shown below:
PCC: Wardens and Clergy are ex-officio: 3 clergy and 8 Wardens Parish Treasurer Four reps from any of the churches, but no more than 2 from a single church Total PCC = maximum 16 people
PCC Secretary & Safeguarding Officer are present as officers not members of the PCC.
DCC: Clergy to co-chair 1 2 Wardens 3 reps from church 1 Finance Officer Total = 7 people
To increase accountability and representation we can invite people to the DCC or PCC to discuss specific issues. For example Justin as Head of Tech was invited to St Mary’s DCC to discuss the screens. Mary could be invited if we were discussing the organ or organists. |
Readings for Morning and Evening Prayer The Table below has the readings for Morning and Evening prayer. The Facebook prayers will read the Old Testament in the morning but you can chose either reading for morning or evening. Prayer books are available from the Parish Office. |
IMPORTANT DATE
May 2025 Magazine
The deadline to receive articles
for the next issue of the magazine is
12th April
Please send them in a Word format to
Sunday 6th April Sunday 5th Sunday of Lent—Purple Isaiah 43.16-21 Philippians 3.4b-14 John 12.1-8 St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am All Age Service 6.30pm 630 Praise St Nix 9.30am Communion St James 11.00am Communion St Peter 6.30pm Evening Worship (Book of Common Prayer)
Sunday 13th April Holy Week—Red Liturgy of the Palms: Luke 19.28-40 Psalm 118.1-2,19-end Liturgy of the Passion: Isaiah 50.4-9a Psalm 31.9-18 Philippians 2.5-11 Luke 23.1-49 St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Communion 6.30pm 630 Praise St Nix 9.30am Morning Worship St James 11.00am Morning Worship St Peter 6.30pm Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
Thursday 17th April 7.30pm Maundy Thursday Agape Meal at St Mary’s Friday 18th April 11.00am Walk of Witness from Chipping Sodbury Baptist Church 2.00pm Hour at the Cross at St James Saturday 19th April 7.00pm Easter Vigil at St Mary’s
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Sunday 20th April Easter Day—White Acts 10.34-43 1 Corinthians15.19-26 Luke 24.1-12
St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Morning Worship 6.30pm 630 Praise
St Nix 9.30am Communion
St James 11.00am Communion
St Peter 6.30am Easter Sunrise
Sunday 27th April—2nd Sunday of Easter Acts 5.27-32 .14-end Revelation 1.4-8 John 20.19-end
St Mary 8.15am Communion 10.30am Communion 6.30pm 630 Praise
St Nix 9.30am Morning Worship
St James 11.00am Morning Worship
St Peter 6.30pm Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
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Find out more
about The
Connection and Those Vicar Blokes on our website at yateparish,org
under the heading
Explore our Faith
A Weekly Group at St Nix Friday Re:fresh runs from 09:30 - 10:30 on a Friday during term-time held at St Nix.
A warm and welcoming group for adults and children (babies to school age) to spend time together chatting, playing, singing and pondering a spiritual thought of the day.
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Morning prayer in Yate Parish
Do you find prayer a little difficult? Would you like some inspiration? Go to the Yate Parish Facebook page to join in Morning Prayer led by our ministry team. You can watch live at 7.30am Monday to Saturday, or watch at any time later in the day. Many people have found it a great start to their day.
Weekly at St Mary’s
Thursday Communion at 10.00am
Compline @8pm
Before the lockdown happened, we had recorded the saying of Compline. We ask that each evening at 8pm we light a candle in our window and pray together for our nation using the words of the Compline service - it takes just over 5 minutes.
Visit the parish website and click on the recordings to listen; you will find the words of the service there too.
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