This Sunday we have services in Albir, Calpe, La Fustera, Javea and Denia. Albir is at the new, regular time of 09.30. El Campello and Gandia remain closed, at least for this week.

For everyone unready, or unable to attend a service Fr. Rodney and Fr. Robin will be broadcasting their now regular communion service on Fr. Rodney’s Facebook page. It will be “streamed” live on Saturday at 7pm Spanish time (6pm GMT) and then available all day on Sunday, to join at your leisure. As always both the live broadcast and the recording will be available on the following page – https://www.facebook.com/rodney.middleton.940.

The Generalitat announced the new regulations (shown below) but has already made some changes!!!!! Just to confuse everybody even more.

No visits to other peoples houses are allowed. The only gatherings in private houses can be by cohabitants. As far as sporting activities are concerned individuals can play in groups of 4, with a monitor if necessary. So tennis courts should re open. Please keep safe, respect the rules, the virus and one another. Keep safe.

Here is the link toFr. Marcus’ latest video – https://youtu.be/RT99ahJZsZo

Thursday Offering from Fr Marcus 25^th February 2021

The Lenten Path to Inner Peace (part 3)

Psalm 34:8 

Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him!

Good Morning My Friends.

In good liturgical practice I want to begin with

Peace be with you
And also with you.

(Don’t you think ‘And with Thy Spirit’ sounds so much more beautiful!)

Last time we reflected on three ways that we might identity an Inner Peace. From the quite dramatic inward and external cleansing to the much more usual ‘acknowledging that we think the same as others (who we look up to)’ and then to that kind rooted in Religious experience.

I hope you have had an opportunity to think about times when you have felt a deep peace, particularly a Christ cantered reality, and a feeling that all was well.

Today however we are going to explore some of the things that can get in the way, and it is very clear that there are common themes that run through them all.
Grief, anxiety, stress, worry, hunger, illness, depression, emotional upset, feeling hurt or misunderstood. All of these, and many more will impact on our quest for Inner Peace, and if we allow it, we could certainly think that there is so much going on in our lives, and in the world, that we will never be able to find a lasting Inner Peace. But I think we can.

There is something very different between what the world has to offer, and what we experience when we rest in the Lord.

Two very well known examples.

Our hearts are restless until they find their rest in you. St Augustine of Hippo

Romans 8:38-39
For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers,  nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.
On our own we can be restless, but with the Lord there can be peace, and nothing needs to get in the way.

The common theme that runs through all of those emotions and experiences that stop us being at peace is that they are all very real, and they can have a huge impact on our lives.
Grief can make us feel as if a great part of our soul is destroyed and anxiety can rob us of any feelings of peace and calm. Stress can trigger thought processes that can fill our minds and worry can cause us sleepless nights which in turn steal any sense of wellbeing.
I could go on, but you get my drift – all these things and more can impinge upon any sense of peace particularly if we are striving to find it. It can seem hopeless, and the more we think about all the issues that face us the worse it can get.

So, I reiterate we have a big task, and it is not either quick or simple, and we are used to the idea that life is hard and it throws us lemons.

But I also want to stress that the scriptures are absolutely full of promises of Peace, and the call for us not to be afraid. To the extent that phrases like ‘Do not be afraid’ occur over 365 times, as if there is one for every day.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” Jn 16.33

My Friends, we have two tasks for our contemplation over the weekend.
the first is to try and thing of all of the scriptures that you can that speak to you of peace. Feel free to look them up, google them, ask others. It is not a competition, but a reminder of the depth of the desire that God has for us to be at peace with ourselves, and with one another.

The second it to explore your own emotions, and try and identify any things that you feel are standing in the way of you experiencing Inner Peace at the moment. This is not about solving issues, but about having a real sense of how you are feeling.

And just to put things into perspective read this little bit out loud.

Philippians 4

 Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! ⁵ Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. ⁶ Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. ⁷ And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

⁸ Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable – if anything is excellent or praiseworthy – think about such things. ⁹ Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me – put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you,

Fr Marcus

The Lenten Path to Inner Peace (part 2)

Matthew 5:1-48 

Seeing the crowds, he went up on the mountain, and when he sat down, his disciples came to him. And he opened his mouth and taught them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. “Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth. …

My Dear Friends,

Thanks for coming back to this exploration of the Lenten Path to Inner Peace.

I feel I have set us on a big task, but it is profoundly doable, and if we can walk a little way together we can definitely make some progress. 
Seeking an Inner Peace that is going to last will be alien to some of you. After all, many of us grew up hearing phrases like ‘Stiff upper lip’, and ‘Pull yourself together’, and even ‘Snap out of it’.
We also commonly used terms like ‘Sticks and stones can break my bones, but words can never hurt me’.
But even more worrying than that was the concept that feelings were personal, and not to be shared, and that men in particular didn’t express them to others. 
I remember getting the cane at school, ironically for fighting! The teacher said, if you cry I will give you more! It was sheer madness.
But things are very different now, and we are all encouraged to be much more open about what is going on in our hearts and minds. It really is good to talk about our feelings, and to get things off our chests.

But as I mentioned last week, sometimes ‘advice’ is not helpful, and on occasions it can just add weight to some feelings that hurt, and make them worse. So these letters do come with a health warning. Slowly slowly.

Today our plan is to try and discern what Inner Peace from a Christian perspective is, and what it might feel like.

2 Thessalonians 3:16 
Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times in every way. The Lord be with you all.

I would like to give three examples of that sense of Inner Peace that I am talking about. The first two are personal, so apologies for a bit of self indulgence, and I offer them only because they make sense to me.

The first was when I was working in the Accident and Emergency operating theatres at the Royal Free Hospital in London as an auxiliary nurse after university and before theological college. I was hoping for ordination, but I loved my job and felt privileged to be part of a team that was dramatically saving lives.
A big part of my job was keeping track of everything used during an operation so that nothing got left inside. Swabs blend in with your insides, and could easily be missed!
I got on really well with the doctors, and sometimes they would ask me to ‘scrub up, and assist by passing the instruments or even putting my ‘finger on that to stop it squirting while they stitched it up’!

Often I used to work at weekends, so couldn’t get to church on the Sunday, so I would go to the hospital chapel during the week. I got very friendly with the Chaplain, and he was very supportive as he knew I was soon to go on my selection conference to see if they would  admit me to training for ordination. 
Part of my spiritual discipline then, and now, was to make my confession to my Spiritual Director. (I think we call them Spiritual Enabler now) The Chaplain was mine. ( Many folk think that Anglicans don’t do Confession, but of course they may if they wish)

So, let me set the scene, I had gone to make my confession before work. I had poured out my soul, and the Chaplain had been really helpful, and at the end had given me absolution.
I left feeling completely Spiritually Cleansed, and God was very real.
When I got in to the theatres, the surgeon asked me to scrub up and assist with a kidney transplant. This was big stuff. There were of course qualified doctors and nurses all scrubbed up as well, but part of the operation is to prepare the donor kidney, and I just assisted with that while a different surgeon and team prepared the patient who was to receive it.
So I scrubbed up and it takes several minutes following a pattern and putting on your sterile clothes and hair covering and mask and everything, and then you don’t touch anything until you are in the actual theatre. When I was ready I felt inwardly spiritually clean from my confession, outwardly absolutely clean because I was scrubbed, and was part of a team definitely changing someone’s life for the better.
I felt bliss. God was real, I knew I was loved and valued, and all was well.

I experienced a deep Inner Peace.

The second example is much more up to date, and it has to do with our recent Synod.
Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York was a key speaker, and his words just struck such a chord with me that it was like he was affirming what I had always held dear. 
Not only did he use words like ‘Beautiful, Wonderful and Amazing’ as he was describing Jesus, but he framed what he said around stories of pilgrimage and poetry, and he so obviously was looking for the best in everything and everyone. But he also pushed it. ‘If you see a wall, knock it down. If you see a barrier, go beyond it’. That kind of thing.

I immediately bought his book about the Camino, which is tales of pilgrimage, and poetry. It is called ‘Striking Out: Poems and stories from the Camino’ and as I read it, I just settled in to a genuine Inner Peace where I was very content with where I am on my spiritual journey.

The third example is from scripture and is the story of the Transfiguration. We had it in church a couple of weeks ago:

Mark 9.2-9

²Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain apart, by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, ³and his clothes became dazzling white, such as no one on earth could bleach them. ⁴And there appeared to them Elijah with Moses, who were talking with Jesus. ⁵Then Peter said to Jesus, ‘Rabbi, it is good for us to be here; let us make three dwellings, one for you, one for Moses, and one for Elijah.’ ⁶He did not know what to say, for they were terrified. ⁷Then a cloud overshadowed them, and from the cloud there came a voice, ‘This is my Son, the Beloved; listen to him!’ ⁸Suddenly when they looked around, they saw no one with them any more, but only Jesus.

⁹As they were coming down the mountain, he ordered them to tell no one about what they had seen, until after the Son of Man had risen from the dead. 

What I love about this story is that Jesus gifted Peter, James and John with this expression of Glory. Elijah, Moses, the Transfigured Christ and the voice of God. The mountain top experience to beat any other, and it is no surprise that they wanted to stay. Peter said ‘It is good that we are here, shall I build three dwellings….’

For those disciples at that moment everything was going to be OK. They were not worried, but wanted to hang on to not only the glory that was there, but the Inner Peace which they were experiencing.

You will have your own thoughts on Inner Peace which will be very different from mine.
And to be fair, not everyone scrubs up, or makes their confession. Not everyone enjoys walking, or uses flowery language, and not everyone has that sort of ‘Religious Mountain Top Experience’ and hears the voice of God. But I believe we all have times when things just seem right. They fit. Just for a while things make sense and God seems very real, and we want the moment to last. 
I am pretty sure that you have felt that at some stage – well I hope you have. I also hope that you can cherish that feeling, and allow it to nourish your faith journey.
However I am also sure that if you have been there, up that Spiritual Mountain, you have realised that you had to come back down again – back into the real world of life.

My Friends, for this process of walking the Lenten Path to Inner Peace to bear fruit, we need to work on it, and so today I ask you to spend some good quality time just thinking of those different times in your life where you felt an Inner Peace, and try and describe it to yourself.
Did it come as a result of you seeking it, or was it a gift, a Blessing?
Did it allow you to feel that for that moment, all was well?
Were you able to think that although God is too big to grasp or comprehend, he did seem real?

Next time we shall look at just some of the things that get in the way.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you.

As ever,

Fr Marcus

A message from Carole Saunders –

Good evening,

This is the information we received from the Centro de Salud today. Please make sure that all your members and friends, are aware of this information and that anyone over 80 should be attentive to their telephones.
I am assuming that the Security forces, ie Guardia Civil, National Police and Local Police will be vaccinated before the over 70’s. But as they are splitting which vaccine goes to which age group this could well speed up the vaccination process.
So far 3,622,165 doses of vaccinations have been distributed in Spain, 3,090,351 administered and 1,197,061 people have received the second dose. But we are a population of nearly 50,000,000, so a long way to go.
Amazingly enough after the UK and Germany we are about the 3rd best Country in Europe for getting the vaccinations out. So that has to be good.
Please take care and stay safe. I understand a lot of foreign residents are breaking the law and having visitors to their houses. At the moment it is just not worth the risk.
The President of Valencia will announce this Thursday an easing of the restrictions.
Best wishes,
Carole

Click the link and enjoy – https://youtu.be/pn2YYT406RI

This week we return to Sunday worship in Albir, but at the new time of 09.30. Services continue at the usual times in Calpe, La Fustera, Javea and Denia. But, due to Covid restrictions, Sunday services remain suspended in El Campello and Gandia, and both our midweek services (Alfaz and Javea) also remain suspended.

For everyone unable or not yet ready to attend church in person, Fr. Rodney and Fr. Robin will be broadcasting a communion service live on Facebook at 10am on Sunday. It will then be available to view as a recording at any time after 11am. Both the live service and the recording can be accessed on Fr. Rodney’s Facebook page. Just click this link – https://www.facebook.com/rodney.middleton.940.

The general increase in cases of the virus, and the severe impact on our local hospitals is a real worry. Please stay safe and do everything that we can to protect ourselves and others.

Here is the link to the outstanding, positive and caring presentation by Archbishop Stephen to our recent archdeaconry synod meeting. Fr. Marcus has referred to this inspiring talk – https://youtu.be/6iBlNFOWVVk.

My Dear Friends,

Greeting as we begin my favourite season of Lent.

I hope together we can walk a path to discover an inner peace which will have a significant effect on the whole of or lives.

May I begin with three rather obvious observations.

The first is that to develop our spirituality in order that we may find a sense of peace is not a quick, or indeed simple process, but rather an exercise that will take a good deal of time and will include letting go of some of our preconceived ideas about the way we think.

It is not an accident that I am starting this series at the beginning of Lent, nor was it an accident that after his Baptism Jesus went into the wilderness for 40 days, during which he was tempted, but he also thought long and hard about how we was going to share his message. Very simply he let go of any sense of ego, and decided the best way to share the Good News was by telling stories, and allowing people to reflect on them in their own way.

My second observation is that we regularly hear messages of Peace in church, so much so that sometimes we miss the beauty of what they mean.
How many times have you received this Blessing:

The peace of God, 
which passes all understanding, 
keep your hearts and minds 
in the knowledge and love of God, 
and of his Son Jesus Christ our Lord; 
and the blessing of God almighty, 
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, 
be among you and remain with you always.

All ​Amen.

Most weeks we receive this Blessing, and yet we find it hard to accept the gift of peace for our hearts and minds. Could it be that it has become so familiar that we take no notice of what is happening. The Priest is giving us a Blessing, and that means something happens.
As with all gifts, it has to be both given and received, and we are not very good at receiving things that we sometimes feel are beyond us.
Maybe it is because we spend too much time thinking the way the world thinks, and not the way God thinks that we can’t find a way to let the Peace of God which passes all understanding into our hearts and minds

My third observation is that there is so much going on in the world and in our own lives right now, to the extent that our own personal peace is pretty far down our agenda, and we have much bigger worries to deal with. Anxiety to do with health, physical, spiritual and mental – concerns for the wellbeing of family and friends, that fact that things are just not normal, and a constant bombardment of worrying news is bound to move our thinking away from seeking our own peace, and towards praying for the world and all its issues. 
Surely we have better things to do that to try and embrace some Hippy mind games.

But in reality, God wants to share his peace and his joy with us, and if we can work on getting that right, then other things may fall into place.

Jn 14. 27
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
Colossians 3. 15
Let the peace of God rule in your hearts
Poverbs 14.30
A heart at peace gives life to the body

Jn 10.10
I have come that you may have life, and have it in all its fullness

Jn 15.11
I have said these things to you so that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be complete.

So, during this Lenten series of letters I invite you to walk slowly with me along a path that leads to inner peace. Let me reiterate, this is not about some quick fix that makes everything lovely, nor is it just about pretending we are fine when we are not. Rather it is about allowing our faith to guide us and being open to the power and presence of the Holy Spirit.

Perhaps our Lenten staring point is for us to be honest about whether or not we want to find an inner peace. We do have a choice.

Jn 5.6
⁶ When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had been there a long time, he said to him, “Do you want to be made well?”

Mtt 20.32
Jesus stood still and called them, saying, “What do you want me to do for you?”

A very real question because healing had consequences. Life would change, and work would need to be done.
So it is with our state of being. We may well be happy with the thoughts we have about ourselves and others. We may like to pretend all is well when in fact what we do is promote a sense of spiritual superiority or even judgment on others because we ‘know they are mistaken’.

Maybe we hurt so bad that we cannot see beyond that, or we think that even God cannot change the way we or others are!

Some folk are not yet ready to forgive. Some are not ready to change. Some can’t see the possibility or the need for things to be different.
Some consciously need to leave it up to God at the moment.
But others are ripe for growth.

Let me tell you a quick story.
In a previous parish there were a brother and sister who had fallen out big time. They could not get on, and whenever they were together there was palpable tension which had an effect on whatever situation they found themselves in. When they were in the same room, nothing was fine.

Their parents were about to celebrate a Golden Wedding anniversary, and the daughter was very conscious of their tension, and not wanting to spoil the day. She asked for my advice, and I suggested she go and see him, and ask that they may put their differences behind them for the sake of their parents, and for the goodwill of all who would be at the party.
She wasn’t keen to go, but I encouraged her, so she went.

It backfired spectacularly, he was furious with her, thought she was interfering and the whole thing escalated!

My fault, and I still feel bad. He in particular was not ready to either forgive, or to be at peace, and no amount of ‘Common sense’ was going to make things OK.

So, our first lesson is that we, or others may not be in a place wqhere we can accept the Peace of God which passes all understanding. But if we are, then this series of letters will open a path for us. If we are not, then perhaps it will enable us to take one or two steps in the direction of allowing our faith to flourish a little bit more.

Finally just so you know what to expect, we shall be looking at
Taking a step towards opening our mind to the possibility of peace
Understanding a series of expectations
Taking responsibility for our own feelings
Letting go of the things and feelings that we don’t need
Unpacking the Christian view of Inner peace and reconciliation
Understanding that the Peace of God is both a Blessing and a gift.

As ever,

Fr Marcus

My Dear Friends,

I do like a bit of the old Mardi gras. 
In my previous parishes in the UK I was very involved in Community projects, organising carnivals, processions, festivals to do with Music, Arts and Drama, and I had the privilege of being founder member of Two Samba Bands, The Beach Bateria, and Samboogie.
I played top surdu, which is a huge bass drum played with big cushioned beaters.

Although we didn’t particularly have a tradition of playing on Shrove Tuesday, we did make the most of any opportunity to turn an event into a celebration, and there is something contagious about the rhythm of samba. It is almost impossible to have a big Samba Band process past you in the street and not feel like dancing.

Shrove Tuesday, or Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) is traditionally the day when one consumes all the ‘stuff’ that you will be giving up during your Lenten fast. In some parts of the world, public displays of music and dancing would not happen during Lent, and the Celebratory Carnivals would lead up to a big display on the day before Ash Wednesday.

But this is not to mean that folk were or are miserable during the Holy Season. The opposite is in fact true. Lent gives us a great opportunity to refrain from certain things in order to do something different, and for many of us it looks 3 ways. In to self – Towards others, and in to God.

I personally have always enjoyed the whole concept of Lent. Taking time to reflect on all my relationships, with partners, friends, family and God. Also to check out how I am feeling with my spirituality.

I am not one for feeling bad because I have been such a dreadful sinner, but rather I want to feel good because I have reminded myself that I could take such and such a relationship more seriously, and grow within it.

Relationships with loved ones and friends take time and energy to grow and a continuous amount of positive effort in order for them to thrive. Lent gives us a prompt to check up on those we hold dear, and get a feeling of how things are between us.
In the same way, our relationship with God takes time and energy for it to thrive.

The good news is that God has taken the initiative in starting our relationship. He was already willing and waiting to embrace us when we first ever even thought about looking for him.
But we can let things get stale, and we can easily miss out on some joy.

Let me just throw out there a few things that we all know we need in order to sustain a relationship with loved ones.
We need to spend time, we need to make that quality time, not just sitting in the same room doing our own thing. We need to speak openly and honestly, and best of all without trying to win.
We need to laugh together, to cry together, to experience new things, and relish the old. We need passion, we need stability, we need to take risks, explore, get lost and find new highs. We need to forgive, to listen, to muck about to be surprised and to trust.

I could go on, but you get the feeling.

Well it is exactly the same with God. I believe we need to do exactly the same  – exactly, to sustain our relationship with him and keep it fresh. That doesn’t only include quality time, and speaking and listening, but th4e fun and joy that comes from laughing, and surprises and mucking about.

We have all met those ‘Religious types’ who are so pious that they have a permanent frown on their faces, and disapprove of everything. Well I don’t see the gospel in that. For me God is gloriously full of laughter and joy, and he is without doubt a God of surprises.

Jesus said I have came that you may have life, and have it in all its fullness. I think that Lent is the time when we explore what the fullness of life truly means.

Bless you, Bless you, Bless you,

As ever,

Fr Marcus