I am writing this article in mid-February before Lent and Easter. I have just received the draft service rotas for the Parish and for the Local Methodist service and penned my duties in the diary with a mixture of anticipation, duty and the daunting task of 6 sermons in the next 9 Sundays! The Lent Group at Treleigh begins on Tuesday week, following Rev Becca’s suggested course on Generosity so I shall be preparing my PowerPoint presentations and embedding the videos and making sure we have Lenten songs to sing in our Night prayer/ Compline in the next week. The Treleigh “Upper Room” house group is a joy to lead and to be part of and in many ways those groups that meet in homes seem so much closer to how early Christians would have met so I urge you to find one of the Lent Groups and make it your own Lenten observance this year.
Yesterday I had a ‘Teams’ video conversation with a researcher for “Songs of Praise” who wanted me to talk about the impact of the Carn Brea Cross on the wider community which I was delighted to do. This year marks its 50th anniversary and so it will go up early on the 14th March and the BBC will be filming the erection of the cross at 9am and the service at the cross at 2pm. It is interesting how many people post on social media asking when the cross is to go up each year…. And when the weather is bad, whether it will go up. In fact, in 50 years only Covid and Foot and Mouth has prevented it!
My first view of the cross was Easter of 1976. Lez and I were teaching in London but came down for the holidays. It was just there… stark on the hillside but in many ways accompanied my journey back to faith and into Christian ministry. We moved to Redruth in 1978 and became involved in almost immediately with Sunday School at St Euny and then the “Worship Workshop” at Pencoys and then the ecumenical house group “Solomon’s Porch” which met in our house in Trewirgie Road. That group had worshippers from Redruth Baptists, the Methodists, our Anglican Churches and even the occasional Roman Catholic. From it came church wardens, several priests, Local preachers and Readers and it was at this time I rally learned what it took to put that cross on the hillside each year… and how important it is as a symbol of witness.
For me it marked a thin place, one of those places where God seems closer than anywhere else, and each year I tried to make it an annual pilgrimage to walk up and pray there.
On a few occasions I have manged to get up there to ‘help’ but not being the tallest of people found myself on tip toes trying to reach it while between younger, taller and stronger bodies! But just my small effort of lifting as it as it journeyed across the rocks to its mooring point, was enough to focus the mind on the journey that Jesus made with only Simon of Cyrene to help.
And ‘focus’ is perhaps what that cross means to me each year. Easter, the time of re-birth, of seasonal change, of recharging of batteries and the reflection of all that is good that God provides with such generosity. My prayer at the cross, as I look out across the town is partly for individuals in the different streets that I recognise from Carn Brea… but mostly that prayer is, “Ok God… I’m up here again, what do you need me to do?” And just as importantly, “What do you need me to put down?”
Then I head down the hill, promising to myself that I will try to listen and be open to what God requires!
So look out for Songs of Praise and make your own pilgrimage to the cross this year if only from the distance and ask in a word of prayer, “what do you need me to do Lord?”
Jim
An Article for The Redruth Parish Magazine for St Andrews.... on volunteering and the pressures on ageing congregations.
“I need to be up by half past six,” says the Church Warden on a Tuesday night, “Fran and I need to be in early to set up for Tiddlers for Thursday morning so she can do it on her way home from the school run. (Thursday morning is another 06:30 wake-up call- as are most Sundays)
So walking Mr Dog the Collie has to be timed precisely so I am out by 5:30 and can be back to wake the warden or leave at 6:30 so that I can be back before the school rush outside our house and well in time for morning prayer on ZOOM which I try to do most days at nine o’clock. In the meantime, I do up the zips on the Church Waren’s boots, after all I know my place kneeling before her – at least until she gets her long-awaited new hip. I try hard not to groan as I get to my feet, I do want to appear sprightly but sometimes find myself looking for a useful bit of furniture to steady me as I stand.
I am writing this on a Thursday morning before the deadline tomorrow so disturbing Lez’s breakfast I quizzed her on what’s happening that I should mention…
- Look out for the upcoming Murder Mystery Tea Party set in a sea-side music hall with guest stars, Roger & Lois Bush and of course our own Fr Peter! Lez, is, of course directing, choreographing and organising my to produce the song sheets for the cast.
- Easter Day has the successful and growing Bubble Church with an Easter Egg Hunt – so do promote it with any families you know with young children.
- In May the International Male Voice Choir festival should prove a wonderfully entertaining evening.
Luckily, I have some time to write this having already planned my service and sermon for the Wall Methodist Service on Sunday. It is amazing what places I have discovered by being on the Methodist Preaching Plan.
There are some serious points to this slightly flippant article, perhaps the first being the realization that our energy supply in our seventies does have a limit and that if one exceeds the limit, there are consequences. The second point is that we are less in number so there are more tasks to do; so many of our friends have died or become too frail and so the search for volunteers to spread the load is a nigh-on impossible one.
Tiddlers could really do with a couple of regular volunteers so that there are enough for a fortnightly rota. Crafty People on a Monday would benefit with a couple of people to make tea for the crafters and to lock up and ‘Toast’ always needs extra folk. Then there are the fund raisers, the committee members, treasurer, sacristans, the cleaners etc.
If it were not for the small group in each of our churches who seem to be involved in nearly everything, many of these outward-facing community-involving events could not happen. So thank you to everyone who gives so generously of their time to support and to help it is hugely appreciated. Now … where did I put my reading glasses?