Love, Pray and Vote
Desmond Tutu famously said: “When people say that religion and politics don’t mix, I wonder which Bible it is they are reading.” Politics is about how we live together as a society. Everything is political – from the food we buy to the cost of electricity, from hospital waiting lists to asylum seekers and refugees and caring for the environment. Everything is pollical. And the whole of the Bible is about the building of community and God’s calling within that.
As the 4th of July General Election in the UK rapidly approaches, the Bible doesn’t tell us which party to vote for. But it and other aspects of our faith do give us tools which we can draw on as we come to our own decision. Firstly, how crucial it is to follow Jesus’ commandment to love our neighbours. We are called too to listen to those on the margins, speak out against injustice and stand up for the most vulnerable in society.
Jesus offers us many examples of this approach throughout his life. One of the clearest is the story of the woman he meets who touches his cloak in Mark 5. This story shows Jesus listening to her experience, which is different from his own, learning about her life and supporting her inclusion within the wider community and society.
The ecumenical Joint Public Issues Team (jpit.uk) has created great resources and podcasts to help us Love, Pray and Vote in the coming General Election. They include a Conversation Guide to help us consider how to talk with people who hold different political views to ours. I found it really worth reading and exploring.
The writer and theologian Diana Butler Bass reminds us why engaging with this General Election in Love, Prayer and by Voting, is not an optional extra but a calling for followers of Jesus:
“I urge you to vote . . . I urge you to do so not out of frustration or fear, but from a sense of profound commitment to the common good. Remember gratefully all the benefits of decency and democracy. Dream of a future where our nation flourishes — not only for the health and benefit of our people and land but to our neighbours and the planet.”
A PRAYER FOR VOTERS
Loving God, we face a choice.
Be with us as we consider the options
weigh the arguments
and assess the claims and the candidates.
But also prompt us to listen:
to the voices on the margins
to the cry of the earth and to those who reach a different conclusion to us.
God, we pray that you would
stimulate our minds
stir our hearts and
sanctify our choosing.
Help us also to remember your command
to love our neighbours
both during and after this election.
Amen
Nicola
| CALENDAR | |||
| JULY | |||
| 7th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
| 9th | Tuesday | 12.30pm | Guild Lunch |
| 10th | Wednesday | 9.30am | Elders’ Meeting |
| 14th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Kevin Ward We shall be joined by our friends from West Park URC |
| 21st | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
| 28th | SUNDAY | 9.30am | Morning Worship at Headingley Methodist Church |
| AUGUST | |||
| 4th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
| 11th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by our Minister |
| 13th | Tuesday | 12.30pm | Guild Lunch |
| 18th | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers We shall be joined by our friends from Headingley Methodist Church |
| 25th | SUNDAY | 10.30am | Morning Worship at West Park URC led by Rev Geof Ellis |
| SEPTEMBER | |||
| 1st | SUNDAY | 10.45am | Morning Worship led by Rev Phil Chilvers |
CHRISTIAN AID WEEK 2024
CHURCH COLLECTION:- £689.00 GIFT AIDED:- £620.00
BP GARAGE £65.15: = (Can at the till)
TOTAL:- £754.15
Thanks to all who contributed and also thanks to Gladys and Kate for their help.
Joan McShane
St. Mildred, Abbess of Minster-in-Thanet
We have just returned from Tenterden (den of Thanet folk) in Kent, where we attended the funeral of a dear friend. The funeral was held in the local parish church of St Mildred, parts of which date to the 13th century with a nave built in the 14th.
I cannot remember visiting any other churches being dedicated to Mildred and, it seems that rather like St Helen, who has many churches in the north of England, those dedicated to St Mildred are predominantly in the south and particularly in Kent.
St. Mildred was the daughter of King Merewald of Magonset and his wife, St. Ermenburga (Aebbe of Minster-in-Thanet); and sister of St Milburga and St.Milgith. At an early age, her mother sent her to be educated at Chelles in France, where many English ladies received a religious training, including St Hilda of Whitby. The next period of her life resembles a tale from the Brothers Grimm.
Mildred was renowned for her beauty and a young nobleman, related to the Abbess of Chelles, was determined to marry this English princess and requested she arrange it. The abbess tried to persuade her, but Mildred insisted that her mother had sent her there to learn – not to find a husband. The abbess resorted to threats and physical assault but in vain. Finally, the abbess shut Mildred in an oven in which she had made a great fire. After three hours, when she expected to find the poor princess burnt to ashes she released the door and the young woman came out unhurt and radiant. Not surprisingly local people, hearing of the miracle, venerated Mildred as a saint; but the abbess, more infuriated than ever, threw her on the ground, beat, kicked and scratched her and tore out a handful of her hair. Somehow Mildred managed to send her mother a letter enclosing some of the hair torn from her head and Queen Ermenburga sent ships to rescue her daughter. The abbess, now fearful for her future refused to let her leave but Mildred managed to escape by night; however, she then managed to return to retrieve some ecclesiastical vestments and a nail of the cross of Christ and take them to safety! She sailed to England landing at Ebbsfleet where she first stepped on a great square stone, which received, and retained, the mark of her foot. This stone was later moved to the Abbey of Minster-in-Thanet and kept there in memory of her and it was said that many were cured with water mixed with a little dust from the stone.
Mildred then joined her mother at her foundation of Minster-in-Thanet. and given the veil by Theodore, Archbishop of Canterbury with seventy other nuns. On St. Ermenburga’s death, Mildred succeeded her as Abbess of the community where she served for many years and was much loved.
Mildred died at Minster on 30th July AD 732.
She continued to be an extremely popular saint, eclipsing the fame of St. Augustine, in the neighbourhood of her monastery. In fact the place where it was thought he landed came to be better known as “St Mildred’s Rock.” Her saint’s day is 13th July.
Minster Abbey still has a community of nuns and is possibly the oldest inhabited house in England, and is it certainly the only pre-Reformation Monastery to be currently used as a Religious House in England.
The church of St Mildred, Whippingham, on the Isle of Wight was the Royal Church when Queen Victoria was in residence at Osborne House and her youngest child, Princess Beatrice, was married there
GUILD LUNCHES
We shall be holding our July lunch on Tuesday, 9th July, meeting as usual at about 12.30pm for lunch at one o’clock. All are welcome! When Joan Throssell started the lunches many years ago, she always continued to hold a lunch in August although most weekday activities went ‘on holiday’, saying people enjoyed a meal together as much that month as any other. Most of us no longer factor school holidays into our lives and we, too, continue to meet in August; so if you are free and fancy a day away from ‘kitchen duties’ why not come along on Tuesday, 13th ? Just let us know – you will be most welcome.
AUGUST NEWSLETTER
Like most churches we always had a combined July/August newsletter as the church had fewer activities during the summer season. However, during the prolonged period of isolation throughout the Covid pandemic, Clare thought it important to keep in touch with members and friends through the now ‘on-line’ newsletter. Post pandemic this has continued, but now I have added the August calendar to this month’s issue and the newsletter will have a break too. It is quite a ‘tour de force’ for Margaret Madill to produce a Prayer Diary for both months, especially as she does her best to include topical issues when possible, so we shall send out the August edition at the end of July with any additional news and planned events.
Pictures from a day out at the Himalayan Gardens and Sculpture Park, Ripon.
Let us know who you have met on a summer visit!
August Update
CHURCH CHARITIES
I am pleased to report that between December 2023 and June 2024 the fund-raising group have raised a total of £674 for the five charities. £225 was sent to the Retired Ministers Housing Society, £140 to both Caring for Life and Wheatfields and £85 to the Leeds Samaritans and £84 to the Bible Society. We are, as always, very grateful to the donors of the goods which sell off the corridor table and the book stall. A big thank you is due to all those who buy the generously donated items – without those purchases nothing would be donated to the charities.
The group does not forget that donations in the Sunday Tea basket, the Festival Chorus Tea Bars, and the Venison Burger sales all add greatly to the total raised.
However, we are running out of new items to sell both on the table and on the bookcases. It is often said that we don’t want to buy anything because we need to reduce what we already have so please do see if there is anything you could donate…
Margaret Madill
P.S. There are five new United Reformed Church shopping bags left! £3 each!
Although the splendid concert given by Leeds Male Voice Choir did not quite match the almost over whelming support of last year, it still raised the magnificent sum of £904.44 for Wheatfields Hospice. We are grateful to them again for giving us the opportunity to support this worthwhile charity.
August is traditionally a ‘holiday’ month in the church, but we are still holding our Monthly Lunch and an Afternoon Tea with Nichola on Thursday 22nd/Tuesday 27th August. More details later.