{"id":3056,"date":"2019-05-26T17:34:47","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T17:34:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/?page_id=3056"},"modified":"2019-05-26T17:34:47","modified_gmt":"2019-05-26T17:34:47","slug":"sermon-26th-may-2019","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/information\/sermons\/sermon-26th-may-2019\/","title":{"rendered":"Sermon – 26th May 2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sermons index<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rogation Sunday \u2013 morning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

Sunday 26th May 2019 <\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Easter 6 – Rogation Sunday – morning
\nActs16.9-15
\nJohn 14. 23-29<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n
\"Maureen<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\nPilgrimage. What is the\ndifference between a holiday and a pilgrimage?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBoth involve a change of place\nand of pace. Both \u2013 one hopes- will be refreshing \u2013 although\nperhaps in rather different ways. I think that after a pilgrimage, we\nare not only refreshed, but changed in some way….<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAs most of you know, I have\njust returned from a trip to Moscow that was fully intended to be\nboth holiday and pilgrimage and I am pleased to report that I think\nit fulfilled both sets of expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nWe were a fairly diverse group\nwho journeyed together. Few knew each other well before we started.\nThere were both clergy and lay people \u2013 and even a bishop for the\nfirst five days! And we all had different expectations and\napprehensions about the experience as we embarked one early Friday\nmorning at Heathrow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThe first barrier being the\nsecurity checks of course; very necessary, but everyone is a little\nnervous until you clear them. Those of us with artificial joints (and\nI wasn\u2019t the only one!) know that we will \u2018set off\u2019 the\nscanning devices \u2013 which necessitates explanation and assurances…\nbut we were soon through those and off on the adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nIn the ten days that followed\nI was able to meet and speak with Russians and other nationalities\nand to see the huge changes that have occurred in Russia in the 44\nyears since I last visited. Of course there were changes \u2013 just\nthink about how our lives have changed in the last 40 or 50 years! It\nis no different for them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nBut the most outstanding thing\nwas to encounter active worshipping Christians, openly displaying\nsigns of their faith and not being afraid to enter the many, many\nchurches and Cathedrals \u2013 many of which have been renovated (and in\nsome cases completely rebuilt).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nNow, we visited the Lutheran\nCathedral in Moscow and the Anglican Chaplaincy there, but of course\nmost Christians in Russia are Orthodox. And orthodox churches and\nservices are different in appearance to our own, although a Communion\nService has all the same elements that we would be familiar with \u2013\nSermon, Creed, Intercessions, Lord\u2019s Prayer, and of course the\nSacrament. It is distributed in a slightly different manner to our\nown, but it is still identifiable as bread and wine shared among the\nfaithful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd to hear the Bells \u2013 lots\nof them. Rung out over the noise of the Moscow traffic (which is\nhorrendous now!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nThere is without question a\nnew life and a new vibrancy and enthusiasm among Christians in\nRussia. There are all generations represented \u2013 from tiny babies to\nthe familiar headscarf-wearing elderly Baboushkas. Men and women and\nchildren, eager to celebrate their faith and to ask questions about\nprayer and about how that faith impacts on all the problems of daily\nlife that they face \u2013 pretty much the same as here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nFaith is something that no\npolitical oppression, no man-made edict can ever truly eliminate.\nFaith endures in the hearts and minds of human beings \u2013 whatever\npolitical leaders may say or do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nOne of the places I visited,\nas I told the congregation here on Wednesday, was called Butovo\nPolygon<\/em>. It is the\nsite of a former army base near Moscow, to which Christian prisoners\nwere brought and executed \u2013 at a bare minimum 20,000 of them \u2013\nthose are the ones that they have records of \u2013 there were thousands\nmore who went to their deaths unrecorded. It could be a place of\nsadness and silence \u2013 like the sites of former concentration camps\nin Germany. But today it is the site of a beautiful church \u2013\ndedicated to the modern martyrs of Communism \u2013 including the\nRomanov Royal family of course, – and a lovely garden, tended by\narmy recruits… probably much like the young infantrymen who acted\nas executioners in times gone by.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nJesus tells his disciples that\nhe is going away, but also that he is coming to them. Not in the\nfamiliar form that they know him by, but in the form of the Holy\nSpirit. That Spirit that cannot be eliminated, cannot be destroyed,\nno matter how much evil is invoked against it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nToday is a day when by\ntradition we ask for God\u2019s blessing on human endeavour \u2013\nespecially on the work of our farming community and all associated\nwith it. As we do so, we need also to keep in mind what happens when\nhuman beings try to do without God, without faith; believing that\nthey hold all the answers themselves. The results can be truly\nshocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\nAnd as we also look forward to\nthe feast of the Ascension this week and then to Pentecost and the\nfoundation of the Christian Church as we know it, let us give thanks\nfor God\u2019s Holy Spirit and pray that we too may be granted a full\nmeasure of it in our lives and our prayers. And if we \u2013 like Lydia\n– are judged faithful to the Lord, may he come and abide with us\nalways. Amen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Rogation Sunday \u2013 morning Sunday 26th May 2019 Easter 6 – Rogation Sunday – morning Acts16.9-15 John 14. 23-29 Revd Preb Maureen Hobbs Pilgrimage. What is the difference between a holiday and a pilgrimage? Both involve a change of place and of pace. Both \u2013 one hopes- will be refreshing \u2013 although perhaps in rather … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Sermon – 26th May 2019”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":270,"menu_order":103,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-3056","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3057,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3056\/revisions\/3057"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/270"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pattinghamchurch.org.uk\/web\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}