Lliswerry Text

From your Parish Priest

My dear friends,

I am quite often concerned over the use of the word 'power'; with power I can do anything or if we really have the power we will get things done! Power (Strength) can be designed to hurt through possible misuse. Our Lord Jesus gave us a good example of the power of God in his life.

If we take a look at The New Testament we may become aware that as Christians we are to share in the power of Christ. Consider St Paul's letter to the Ephesians (Chapter 1 v15-19)

'That you may know the hope to which he has called you, what are the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power in us who believe.'

So many look upon that gift of the Power of the Holy Spirit as a means of actually making a bid for power, as secular power links power with strength. Looking at the life of Jesus, he sums up his own life as one in terms of a servant. This is a total departure from the normal concept of power. Jesus underlined this godly power to be used to the giver rather than take. He also linked power with sacrifice. His life was to be given as a ransom.

Spiritual power is also to do with a stripping down of our strength and being made aware of our need for God. As followers of the Risen Lord we are called to channel the power of God – such power is to enable us to empty ourselves of our pride and self-centredness and focus upon the needs of others.

I hope and pray that each and every one of us will become more aware of the Spirit within us.

God bless you

Philip

THOUGHTS FROM PEGGY

I must start these notes with a very big thank you to all who collect in their boxes throughout the year for the Archbishop of Wales Fund for Children. This Easter the grand total was £258.70 – a truly magnificent effort on behalf of the Committee. I thank you very much for supporting this very worthwhile Charity. If anyone has still got a box to be emptied do not worry, just hand it to me as soon as possible and the amount will be added to our total. Please make sure you collect a box from the back of the Church even if you have never had one before. The Charity needs all the financial help it can get. (More boxes are on hand)

I hope you enjoyed Easter as much as Teg and I did. Isn't it wonderful to come into Church on Easter morning and smell the flowers after six weeks of Lent and sing those glorious Easter hymns? You will have noticed that the Easter garden this year also included a Garden of Remembrance. This was a new venture for us and because it was such an outstanding success it will be continued every Easter. Again thank you to all who contributed. A very big thank you to Malcolm Flinn who made such lovely name tags. After Easter I was privileged to speak to Griffithstown MU and read to them some passages from 'An Impossible God' by Frank Topping. It is written as if Cleopas is talking about all that had happened in Jerusalem and their encounter with the stranger on the road to Emmaus and it was only when Jesus broke the bread that they recognised him. After that Frank Topping offers this prayer: 'Dear unexpected Lord, a banquet with you is bread shared with friends. You do not sit with rulers and kings but with fishermen, carpenters and shepherds. Your seamless robe was not silk or satin but the homespun cloth of the village hearth. You began your earthly days wrapped in makeshift strips of cloth and people in ragged clothes, a ruler without ornament.

The presence of your love turns kitchens into palaces, homes into royal courts, hearts into temples. In your presence every table is a heavenly banquet. Lord in your mercy, may I never break bread without giving thanks for the body broken for me, and in your risen presence may every meal be my Emmaus.'

As we think of that last sentence perhaps we could make a real effort to offer thanks (however short) before we eat each meal especially as we are confronted by millions dying through hunger.

A little 'funny' taken from the spring issue of 'Insight'. Patient: It's been one month now since my last visit and I still feel miserable. Doctor: Did you follow the instructions on the medicine I gave you? Patient: I certainly did. The bottle said 'keep tightly closed.'
Peggy

Thanks!

Dear friends, Many thanks for all your prayers and for the lovely cards I received during my recent stay in hospital.

God bless you all

Muriel

History of the Parish of St Andrew's Lliswerry (written by Rev'd Cyril Starling in 1967 Parish Magazine No 8)

The new boundary would be difficult to define today, because of the parcels of farm land have been built upon, but eventually it emerged that the western side of Nash Road owed allegiance to Maindee and the eastern side to Christchurch. Hence even today the remaining older inhabitants of Lliswerry road trek to Christchurch for special occasions. The existing church of St Andrew's is just within the boundaries so defined in the Eton College letter, although in those days there was a great deal of slackness about recording on paper actual boundaries, but all the inhabitants would know the delineations without having to resort to documents. It would be of interest to readers to know just a little about the history of the building of Maindee Church because it reveals how eventually St Andrew's became independent. Odd extracts from the Maindee minute book built up a picture of this. Llliswerry stone was mentioned when a tender was submitted for using this stone for the quoins (15th April 1859). The foundation stone was laid by the Rt. Hon. Lady Tredegar on 27th April 1859. The church was opened for divine worship on 17th April 1869 by the Lord Bishop of Llandaff Diocese, which was in those days the diocese of this area. Mr James Newman was the first minister at the stipend of £120 per annum. Mr Spittle gave six pillars for lighting the outside of Maindee Church. An order in council dated 9th April 1866 constituted Maindee as a separate parish for ecclesiastical purposes. Mr James Newman became the first vicar and read himself in on 13th May 1866. The Revd. John Steadman was appointed curate in March 1870. The Revd. Newman resigned in 1871 upon his appointment to Glastonbury, Brecon and Archdeacon Thomas Sleeman was appointed to the living in December of that year. The first mention of the people of Lliswerry in the minute book was when the Revd. Tedman left for Warmington and the Lliswerry folk gave him a presentation of an envelope case. Mr Stanley Wood made te presentation. Maindee Parish had five incumbents who therefore had the oversight and responsibility of the Lliswerry district. They were:

Revd. James Newman 1861-1871 Archdeacon Thomas Sleeman 1871-1880 Revd.Thomas Griffiths 1881-1888 Revd.James Swinnerton 1888-1897 Revd. D E Llewellyn-Jones 1897-1930

During this period the parish was served at some time or other by no les than 44 curates, some staying for less than 12 months others for longer periods, the most notable being Revd. S H Jenkins 1878-1890 (12 years), J Cottrell 1901-1915 (15 years) and J Hosbone 1900-1911 (11 years). For several years there were four curates and an incumbent serving the parish many of them of course being in charge for the majority of their time or attached to the Lliswerry end of the parish. The curate in 1920-21, the Revd. R Thomas, became the priest-in-charge of St Andrew;s when it became a conventional district in 1920. Of course the staff of five priests was necessary because there were in addition to the parish church no less than five daughter churches or chapels-at-ease and the heavy responsibility of the church school at Maindee

C J Starling

Eschatology II

As the sands run out less time remains To worry about but more the future beckons Balloons into the present and the past returns Of itself become a gauge against life's slippage

In the backpack given you as ballast, A shortness of future to enhance the chance, There importunately blows and billows shining witness, To fill out your sails grown big by years' introspections

On an ocean of royal gold, coined strangely beautiful, Laughs new-minted, a spangled sun's assay Gained entrance these late days, to swaggerings, to adventure, Bowed-full, and anticipation whispers just what might be

Delight's eruption subdues harsh silence. Days Break out love events, like shoals of dolphins, scalloping, flying Raising wings to a Creator whose riches spread like elegance

In this place where no-one knows and ever-westwards moves By promise in newborn novelty drawn-on and passing forward Going night-wards, out of time, time-out-of-mind All hours and days calling loudly to one another

At the golden gates unsold tickets await the holiday highdays In dance, a gavotte, leaping children cavort piping loud there, Hear their voices ringing and sting air like death's sharp petals They feather down bright, like linen folds made out of Jerusalem

From

Marilyn

Confidence….

By John Roberts 1874 A sea captain's version of the 23rd Psalm

The Lord is my pilot I shall not drift He lighteth me across the dark waters He steereth me in deep channels He keepeth my log He guideth me by the star of holiness for his name's sake Yea, though I sail mid thunders and tempests of life I will dread no danger For thou art with me Thy love and thy care shelter me

Thou preparest a harbour before me in the homeland of eternity Thou anointest the waves with oil My ship rideth calmly Surely sunlight and starlight shall favour me in the voyage I take, and I will rest in the port of my God for ever

Displacement Activities and the Search for Authenticity

Displacement in its classic scientific meaning is illustrated by filling a mug to the very brim with water and dropping a large stone into it. The mug overspills and the volume of water that is 'displaced' is equal to the volume of the large stone.

Displacement activities are a little different. They are the things that we do instead of the main tasks before us; things we deliberately put in the way of doing the jobs we dislike, and it is this kind of displacement that I want to write about. Almost, anyway.

Displacement activities are a form of escape, escape from the humdrum, the routine, the familiar, the dull, into areas which interest us or soothe us, entertain us or stimulate us. Just as the large stone is much heavier than the volume of water it displaces so it is that the tasks we forego are often more leaden and burdensome than the tasks we put in their place. The irksome is squeezed out by the delightful when displacement is at its most obvious.
What about the search for authenticity? What does this have to do with displacement? Well, there are activities which are as it were 'substitutes' for others, and just as one thought or anxiety will drive out another from one's head, so too do some activities drive out anxieties and certain thoughts from people's minds.

At the break up of a relationship for instance, a divorced couple each might decide to bury their heads in their work and engage for long periods in a sort of hectic and feverish spate of activity in order to deflect the mind and so lessen the pain.

The flurry of work thus displaces the furies of regret and failure.

These activities last only for the period of time that they are useful and once the adjustment is made they become redundant.

But there are some adjustments that cannot be made because of the very presence of displacement activities which are being done deliberately and persistently to block the migration of the mind into the appropriate channels. These are real escapisms, which smother thoughts on other issues which might be matters of life and death; or else about questions concerning the presence of meaning and purpose in the world.

Let's give a few examples. A common one is work, which we have said a bit about already. Then there are novels and artistic endeavour in general, literature, painting and music, opera, theatre and cinema. Then there is sport and especially soccer and rugby, though not excluding golf and PC games and other hobbies. Gambling is another instance. Things can become obsessions, for it is no accident that ardent followers of pursuits are called 'fans' which term is a curtailed form of the word 'fanatics'.

In addition often we use our pursuits as indicators of who we are, of what we stand for, and of what we believe in. In other words we use our pursuits to feed into our lives meaning and purpose. This in part is why windows might be put in when the home team loses, or why some men will consider taking their life when their financial world crashes down around their ears, or why people will pay exotic prices for seats at the opera or at Wimbledon. How often an artist will say things like 'my art is my life' and 'I couldn't live without art' and let us have 'art for art's sake'.

We are a type of animal who pins its heart on things as a badge of allegiance to them – the team, or the club, or the singer, or the nation, or the movement, or the party.

Entailed in these pledges of commitment are a profound search for and an investment in what is best termed 'authenticity'. What I mean is that such pledges of commitment offer to their donors in return a certain quantity of authenticity to their lives, a certain amount of perceived reality and raw experience. We have, for instance, the words of the young that typify them as emergent adults with a need to establish themselves and to exhibit themselves to others as real and authentic bona fide persons; words like 'cool' and 'chill' and 'streetwise' and 'bad' and 'sad' and so on. To use these words is to go some way to being somebody amongst one's peers in the group. We have also the oppressed young black persons' quest for being and authenticity and acceptance and meaning expressed in their use of words like 'respect' and 'I and I' and 'rap' and 'Babylon', and now we are getting nearer the point.

'Babylon' is a very good point at which to introduce into the argument the place of The Holy Bible in all this, the literary source wherein we Christians believe we find The Meaning of all things and the Ultimate Authenticity from everlasting to everlasting.

I guess by now some of the people reading this have begun to see what I am getting at and why I have given this piece the title it has?

The fact is that so many people who are unable to bring themselves to believe in God are in denial of Him because they are using their displacement activities as ways to shield themselves from Him and from His calling in their lives. They are at present unable to take the required step, unable to change from atheist or agnostic into believer; the leap is too great and the chasm between too frightening. For with faith comes an amount of responsibility, a personal closeness to The Truth which lights us up but exposes to our view those things about ourselves we most want to bury from our sight and from others.

It takes a modicum of courage to let God into one's life, but it is a courage which He will supply when we open ourselves up to and throw ourselves upon Him. It is the easiest thing in the world to duck the issues when things are going swimmingly well and life is 'cool' and 'no sweat'. It is only when we hit trouble that we start back and begin to look around for something more than 'life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness'; something more than those activities we have been content to pledge ourselves to and which now seem unable to supply answers, and so neither do they offer solace. In our small way we can be made better persons by our having suffered trouble and anguish and just as Jesus himself was 'made perfect through suffering' I believe firmly that there can be no advancement in our sympathies, our understandings, nor our faith without an appreciation of the potential for redemption that there is in human suffering. This fact, if it is a fact, does not vindicate all the suffering that occurs in the world. Much of it appears to be wanton and to no avail, but I don't think any reflective person will deny that central paradox of Christianity that out of calamity and disaster it is possible can arise love, hope, faith, and a personal revelation of Jesus and of his intimate, unfailing love for each one of us.

This indeed is the central paradox of the Gospel story.

To turn to Jesus though is not to deny oneself the world, is not a turning away from our secular interests or our hobbies and activities, so that we become as it were 'dead to the world'. The result is instead that those things once our displacement activities become now shot through with new and electric meaning, real, 21 carat, solid gold authenticity, value and wonder and joy.

We are able now in all things to do them with complete commitment for Jesus sake, 'who by his death destroyed death, and rising to life again, restored to us everlasting life'. St. Paul goes so far as to say that we are restored to life by the power of the spirit of Christ working within us. For certain there can be no greater assurance of the authenticity of our existence and our experience than that freely given to our lives by Jesus through our apprehension of his love and of his Person, the Son of God. There can be no more lofty meaning and purpose than that he authenticates in his people.

There can be for us no more displacement of purpose and meaning into sublunary and desperate things that cannot hold the full burden they had been asked of us previously to bear.

Only Jesus can bear the burdens of us all, has borne them, and will bear them, 'yesterday, today and forever.'

Spring Fetes –Dates

St Philip's 3rd June

St Andrew's 10th June