Articles
Casimir 1458-84
Casimir is a good patron saint for anyone whose father drives them crazy. He did not let an unhappy background stop him from becoming the person he wanted to be. Casimir's father, the King of Poland back in 1458, was no picnic as a dad.
For if you think your teens were difficult, consider this; when Casimir was only 13, his father decided to send him to war. He put him in charge of a large army, aimed at fighting on the Hungarian border. At 13, this was hardly easy, but worse was to come. Casimir's father had not bothered to pay the troops. So soon young Casimir faced crisis: his soldiers, quite reasonably, were reluctant to fight Hungarians when they were not even being fed. The troops deserted, and Casimir had a difficult time surviving the journey home.
Then his father, far from welcoming his son's safe return, put all the blame of the lost army on Casimir. He banished his son to the castle of Dobzki. Instead of being crushed by this, Casimir used the time to think, and he grew up fast. Next time his father summoned him, he found a determined young man who had seized control of his own life. Casimir flatly refused to fight again against any Christian country, and he refused to marry a daughter of Emperor Frederick III. Casimir had decided he would prefer a life of celibacy, devotion to God, and austerity and he stuck to his decision.
When Casimir became King in 1481, he ruled over much of Poland for three years. In stark contrast to his father, he was loved for his justice, prudence and firmness. He died of tuberculosis at the age of only 26, and was buried at Vilna. But his good deeds lived after him, and he was canonized by Leo X in 1521.
Prayer
God stir the soil,
Run the ploughshare deep,
Cut the furrows round and round,
Overturn the hard, dry ground,
Spare no strength nor toil,
Even though I weep,
In the loose, fresh mangled earth,
Sow new seed.
Free of withered vine and weed
Bring fair flowers to birth.
The King James Version: 400 Years On
Which of these means more to you:
'Happy are those whose greatest desire is to do what God requires; God will satisfy them fully!' - or 'Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled'?
Both are translations of Matthew 5:6, but the first version is from the Good News Bible from 1960s , while the second is the King James version, or Authorised Version, of 1611 (KJV for short). For many people, the older version goes deeper, is more stirring and tells us more about God. In 2011 we mark its 400th anniversary. There are a range of celebratory events - from talks by celebrities to readings in tiny churches. As we'll be hearing often , the KJV has shaped the hearts and minds of English-speaking people through out the world in these four centuries. It first coined many words and expressions that have become apart of the language - so much so that most people wouldn't necessarily think of them as biblical, and usually think that they're from Shakespeare (especially as he was writing at about the same time). So we have: 'lovingkindness' (psalm 17 and elsewhere), 'the signs of the times' (Matthew 16), 'the powers that be' (Romans 13), and many more.
But the old-fashioned are;t just part of heritage, like an ancient monument; their poetry can speak directly to our needs today. They can give a stronger and more immediate sense of God's tender love and glorious majesty, from 'I water my couch with my tears' (Psalm 6:6) to 'Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels ...' (1 Corinthians 13:1)
It's easy to be put off by the dark type and odd words: 'thee' and 'thou', '-eth' endings, 'abide' and 'sojourn'. Some parts, especially the Epistles, can be dense and tortuous. We can't turn the clock back: the KJV can never be the only version for us now. But if we use both old and new translations together, we gain so much more.
In its heightened language, the KJV gives us a richer appreciation of wonder. So, just as we wouldn't want to knock down old churches, we shouldn't leave the KJV unread. It's not just a cultural landmark, but it's something that can shape our life right now.
Rachel Boulding is a Deputy Editor of Church Times, and the author of Celebrating the King James Version: Devotional readings from the classic translation (BRF, £9.99 hardback).
Who will live here? - The Future Population of Our Planet
The world's population is both growing and ageing. The total population in 2010 was estimated at 6.9billion people by the United Nations Population Unit, and is expected to increase to 7.6billion by 2020, and to 9.2 billion by 2050, a net growth rate of 190,000 people per day over the next decade and 150,00 per day thereafter.
Half of this increase in population between 2010 and 2050 will be across 9 countries, which are, in order of contribution to the increase: India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Ethiopia, United States, Democratic Republic of Congo, United Republic of Tanzania, China and Bangladesh. Four of these countries are in Asia, four in Africa. Only one, the United States, is in the developed world. The increase is a net figure. A quarter of the world's nations, 45 in all, are expected to see their population decrease in this period, 17 by at least 10%.
Between 1990 and 2010 the number of Christians in the developing World increased from 940million to 1,400 million, and increase of 50%, or the equivalent of 64,000 extra Christians per day. In the same period the number of Christians in the developed world increased by 810 million, just 6%, or the equivalent of 7,000 extra Christians per day, and some of these will be immigrants.
A former mission worker in Asia, Rosemary Dowsett, said, "Asia is awash with both economic migrants/immigrants/emigrants and those moving away from persecution - the movements are , multi-directional, break families apart, leave churches wondering how to deal with church members who are involved in multiple families, communities where all the men have left or conversely (as in the Philippines) churches where a high proportion of mothers have left to earn money in say the Middle East (as maids), churches which lose all their potential leaders, etc." These are key issues worldwide.
Although modern man zestfully explores outer space, he seems quite content to live in a spiritual kindergarten and play in a moral wilderness. Carl F H Henry
Colonel Cameron V.C C.B
It is reported that the question was asked at a recent meeting of the P.C.C, "Who placed the poppy wreath on the grave of Colonel Cameron V.C?" and no-one knew; perhaps some members were even unaware that we have the holder of the Victoria Cross, buried in St. Mark's churchyard. The wreath is the profound act of respect of Graham Alexander.
Aylmer Spicer Cameron was the grandson of General William Neville Cameron of the East India Company and the son of Lt. Col. William Gordon Cameron of the Grenadier Guards, who lost his right arm at the Battle of Waterloo, following which he retired to Nea House and became a J.P. He died in 1852 and is also buried at St. Mark's. It is probable that son Aylmer was born at Nea House, as he was baptised at the Priory in 1834. He was commissionned into the 72nd Highlanders in 1852, served in the Crimea from June 1855 and was in India for the Indian Mutiny where he won his V.C, the citation reading , "for conspicuous bravery on 30 March 1858 at Kotah, in having headed a small party of men and attacked a body of armed fanatic rebels strongly posted in a loop-holed house with one narrow entrance; Lieutenant Cameron stormed the house and killed three rebels in single combat; he was severely wounded having lost half of one hand by a stoke from a tulwar"
On his promotion to major in 1871, Aylmer Cameron transferred to the King's Own Scottish Borderers, taking command of the regiment as Colonel in 1881. He was back in India in 1875 and the 1881 Canadian Census, shows him serving in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Despite his Highcliffe birth, he declared his ethnic origin in this Census to be Scottish. From 1886 to 1888, he was Commandant of the Royal Military College at Sandhurst, following which , he retired. He was appointed a Commander of the Bath Queen's Birthday Honours list of May 1886. his obituary in The Times of 13th June 1909, reports that he died after a long period of illness, that may account for his home in the 1901 Census being in Bath.
So thank you Graham for honouring on our behalf, this son of Highcliffe with such a distinguished military career, now at rest in the tranquility of St. Mark's churchyard.
Columbia of Iona (c.521-97)
Columbia was born in Donegal of the royal Ui Neill clan, and trained as a monk. He founded the monasteries of Derry (546), Durrow (c.556) and probably Kells. But in 565 Columba left Ireland with twelve companions for Iona, an island of southwest Scotland. Iona had been given to him for a monastery by the ruler of the Irish Dalriada.
Why would a monk in his mid 40’s go into such voluntary exile? Various explanations include: voluntary exile for Christ, an attempt to help overseas compatriots in their struggle for survival, or even as some sort of punishment for his part in a row over a psalter in Ireland. Whatever the reason, Columba went to Iona and spent the rest of his life in Scotland, returning to Ireland only for occasional visits.
Columba’s biographer, Adomnan, portrays him as tall, striking figure of powerful build and impressive presence, who combined the skills of scholar, poet and ruler with a fearless commitment to God’s cause. Able, ardent, and sometimes harsh, Columba seems to have mellowed with age.
As well as building his monastery on Iona, Columba also converted Brude, king of the Picts. Columba had great skill as a scribe, and an example of this can be seen in the Cathach of Columba, a late 6 Century psalter in the Irish Academy, which is the oldest surviving example of Irish majuscule writing. In his later years Columba spend much time transcribing books.
Columba’s death was apparently foreseen by his community, and even, it seems, sensed by his favourite horse. He died in the church just before Matins, and it is a tribute to this man that his traditions were upheld by his followers for about a century, not least in the Synod of Whitby and in Irish monasteries on the continent of Europe.
Here is a prayer of St. Columba:
Christ with us. My dearest Lord, Be thou a bright flame before me, be thou a guiding star above me, be thou a smooth path beneath me, be thou a kindly shepherd behind me, today and evermore.
The Evangelization Of The World In This Generation.
Edinburgh, 1910! A hundred years ago this month, 1,355 delegates from scores o Protestant missions met together under the chairmanship of an influential American Methodist layman, John R. Mott. Mott’s slogan – The evangelization of the world in this generation – is remembered to this day. Years earlier Mott had been influenced through a speech by an outstanding Cambridge University cricketer Kynaston Studd, who himself had been touched by the American preacher D.L. Moody. The Edinburgh World Missionary Conference led to the funding of the International Missionary Council in 1921, and ultimately to the World Council of Churches in 1948. Yet, while conferences can focus minds on mission strategy and may set up useful structures, that is not how an apprentice cobbler William Carey was called to India, not how London parlour maid Gladys Aylward got called to China! Back in 1894 Hudson Taylor – then 62 – was leading over 600 missionaries in China, when he declared, “God chose me because I was weak enough. God does not do is great works by large comities. He trains somebody to be quiet enough and little enough, and then he uses him.”
William Wilberforce pin-pointed November 9, 1796 as pivotal in the forming of the Church Missionary Society, In his diary he wrote, ‘Dined and slept at Battersea Rise for missionary meeting.’ It was later that Eugene Stock – future leader CMS – observed, ‘That dinner at Clapham on November 9 was more important in the world’s history than the Lord Mayor’s Banquet at the Guildhall the same evening!
It is not that organized conferences are of no account. Our prayers are required for important strategies resulting from the long-planned second Edinburgh mission conference, to be held this very June (2-6) in celebration of the 1910 original (www.edinburgh2010.org). And from October 16-25 this year, the Third Lausanne Congress on World Evangelization is to be held in Cape Town, from October 16-25 (www.lausanne.org) . But Pentecost, just passed, provides the real secret that must undergrid such conferences, and that explains the remarkable expansions of Christ’s world mission – into an international Family in which up to 100,000 people per day embark upon discipleship, and in which some 1500 new congregations come into existence weekly.
‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witness in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.’
By Prebendary Richard Bewes.
The great exit from our rural communities
Young people are leaving rural villages in record numbers because of there lack of modern services, recent research has found. The combination of a lack of fast internet connections, few affordable houses and few education opportunities has been blamed for driving 200,000 young people out of the countryside each year.
A recent study by the Rural Advocate, Stuart Burgess, on the State of the Countryside, found that 15-29 year olds have real problems finding somewhere to live, study and socialise in the countryside. "My clear message is that this challenge needs addressing .... failure to act will put the future viability of our rural communities at risk."
Into all the World
One custom I like at St. Mark's is our support of "USPG: Anglicans in World Mission" and the "Church Missionary Society" in alternate Lents. This year it is USPG's turn and so USPG Lent Boxes are available at the back of the church; please help yourselves to them! When I was a child, my mother would visit the butcher, baker, dairy, grocer or greengrocer several times a week and spend a few coins in each of them. Any spare coins she could put in the Lent Box. Many still find this a convenient way to donate to missionary societies, but the effects of inflation on the one hand and of supermarkets on the other, not to mention the spread of credit cards and domestic refrigerators, mean that many of us do larger but less frequent shops and seldom have suitable coins for our Lent Box! Of course there is no reason why we should not put notes or even cheques in our box but some may prefer to use special Lent Appeal envelopes which are also available at the back of the church.
USPG and CMS are among the largest and oldest of the Anglican missionary societies. Between them they probably work in most of the countries in the world! This may sound an exaggeration but as I write the subject in the USPG Prayer Diary is the Anglican Church of Uruguay. I did not know that there was an Anglican Church of Uruguay, let alone that it is supported by USPG! Much the same applied to the pioneering mission high on the Amazon River that we studied a few months ago, but our subject this Lent is very different. We shall consider an established diocese in Ghana; far across the Atlantic Ocean from South America. Established but still needing our support although for different things than a century ago! There will be a photographic exhibition about it in March in St. Mark's and USPG have also produced a short film on DVD which I hope we shall be seeing.
It has been wonderful how people at St. Mark's and at the other churches in Highcliffe have responded to the appeal to help the people of Haiti. Our response has demonstrated the love of Christ and also our love to Christ who said "whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me"(Matt ch25 v40). But it would be sad if our response to special appeals like Haiti were at the expense of our regular charitable giving. This is also for people greatly in need of our help and whom as members of our Anglican family we have a special duty to support. I therefore commend to you this year's Lent Appeal through USPG.
Nigel Purry, USPG Parish Link
Peter Claver (1581-1654) Teacher And Missionary
Here is a saint for anyone with a social conscience. Claver was born near Barcelona at Verdu, and at 20 became a Jesuit. He went as a missionary to New Granada and worked to alleviate the terrible suffering of slaves who arrived from West Africa, caged like animals. (It was said that you could smell the stench of a slave ship while it was still seven miles from shore.) Claver helped the poor wretches who survived long enough to reach dry land. He gave them food and medicine as well as spiritual comfort. He is said to have cared for and baptised 300,000 slaves. What a difference one life life can make to thousands of people!
Archishops' Zimbabwe Appeal Raises Almost £300,000
The Archbishops of Canterbury and York say they have been humbled by the response to the appeal at the beginning of Lent. It highlights the support needed by churches who are struggling to feed the hungry and provide health care.
In a joint statement, the Archbishops have said "The support of the general public has been overwhelming. We know that rebuilding Zimbabwe is a long-term aim, and this short intervention is still only reaching a small number of many millions in need. Thank you for enabling us to do this."
"Our brother Bishops in Zimbabwe have highlighted the need for immediate relief activites to address the cholera epidemic and starvation, but also that we suppport programmes that provide long term solutions to poverty. So at their request we will be poviding seed-corn for crops in time for the planting season which normally starts end of October.
"More of the dioceses, of central Zimbabwe are expected to send in their specific requirements in the next few weeks, and they have told us that their focus will be on the most vulnerable in their communities; those living with HIV, the elderly as well as children.
Three dioceses, those of central Zimbabwe, Madvingo and Matabeleland, are the first ones to roll ot the supplementary feeding programme in schools, and Easter week saw the first food distributed through the Church schools.
The Rt.Revd. Michael Doe, General Secretary of USPG; Anglicans In World Mission said:
"We've been astounded by the response of the general public, and we thank all those that have supported the Archbishops' appeal so far."
The Archbishops' appeal (which is being administered on their behalf by USPG: Anglicans in World Mission) will be accepting donations for the rest of 2009.
St. Mary Magdalene
It is easy to understand the popularity of Mary Magdalene over the centuries: she is the patron saint of both the repentant sinners and the contemplative life.
Jesus drove seven demons from Mary, who came from near Tiberias in Galilee. She became his follower to the bitter end. She followed him to Jerusalem and was present during the crucifixion, standing heart-broken at the foot of the cross. Her love for Jesus did not end there, for she went to the tomb to anoint his body on the Sunday morning.
Such faithful, humble devotion was richly repaid: it gave her a unique privelage among all mandkind: she was the first person to whom the Risen Lord appeared on Easter Sunday Morning. She thought he was the gardener at first.
Mary Magdalene has sometimes been identified with the woman who anointed Chirst's feet in the house of Simon (Lk 7.37.) Over the centuries many artists have painted this scene. Mary Magdalene's feast has been kept in the west since the 8th century. England has 187 ancient churches dedicated to her, as well as a college in both Oxford and Cambridge.
Barnabas
Are you going to Cyprus on holiday this year? If so, spare a thought for the Cypriot who played such a key role in the New Testement.
He was Joseph, a Jewish Cypriot and a Levite, who is first mentioned in Acts 4:36, when the early church was sharing a communal lifestyle. Joseph sold a field and gave money to the apostles. His support so touched them that they gave him the nickname of Barnabas, 'Son Of Encouragement'.
Barnabas has two great claims to fame. Firstly, it was Barnabas who made the journey to go fetch the converted Paul out of Tarsus, and persuade him to go with him to Antioch, where there were many new believers with no one to help them. For a year the two men ministered there, establishing a church. It was here that the believers were first called christians. It was also in Antioch (Acts 13) that the Holy Spirit led the church to 'set aside' Barnabas and Paul, and send them out on the church's first ever 'missionary journey'. The Bible tells us that they went to Cyprus, and travelled throughout the island. It was at Lystra that the locals mistook Barnabas for Zeus and Paul for Hermes, much to their dismay.
Much later, back at Jerusalem, Barnabas and Paul decided to part company. While Paul travelled on to Syria, Barnabas did what he could do best: return to Cyprus and continue to evangelise it. So if you go to Cyprus and see churches, remember that christianity on that beautiful island goes right back to Acts 13, when Barnabas and Paul first arrived.
In England there are 13 ancient church dedications and not a few modern ones. Barnabas the generous, the encourager, the apostle who loved his own people-no wonder he should be remebered with love.
