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Dear friends,

Normally I would write to you with a reflection for the church season, but today my writing to you has a different focus with special attention being given to our families who have loved one’s mortal remains interred in the parish church of St Leonards, Mundford.

As you will know that in past years Mundford’s churchyard has been kept beautifully with the grass cutting having been contracted out from a generous grant from our local parish council. Due to unforeseen circumstances, the contract came to a sudden end just before the Easter weekend, and since then generous volunteers have given much time and devotion to trying to keep on top of the grass in the churchyard, but it is an enormous task to which we have been struggling.

I am aware of the distress the state of the churchyard has caused for our families who visit loved one’s graves on a regular or irregular basis, to which as your parish priest and on behalf of St Leonards PCC, we offer our heartfelt and sincere apologies for any distress that has been felt.

I wanted to assure you that the situation is not one of neglect or disrespect to our families and those whom they have loved who have passed, or to the memories of those who are laid to rest within the churchyard. But we are struggling and doing our very best during this temporary period.

We want to assure our families of our love for you and your loved ones and are working to a solution that will see St Leonards churchyard to its former condition as soon as we can. As for now if any of our families who can offer some time and support to help us in the meantime in keeping the churchyard cut regularly with a focus around personal family graves, we would be truly grateful to you, as the parish church and churchyard belongs to the community in which it is set, which is good and right and is our shared responsibility.

Grief I know from my own experience of grieving the loss of loved ones is something that never truly leaves us, and is something that over time we learn to try and live with each day, knowing that we are changed by it.

Our loved ones remain for-ever dear in our hearts and memories, and each person we have loved and lost has been instrumental in shaping the people that we are today, and we know that the places where our loved ones are laid to rest also has great significance in enabling us to grieve and feel close to them.

Please forgive us if we have caused any distress to you in recent weeks due to our current situation, and please do support us as we get back on our feet again and attempt to restore St Leonards churchyard to its former beautiful condition.

 

With every love and blessing,
Your parish priest, Zoe

Revd. Zoe Ferguson (Priest in Charge Mundford Group Benefice & Assistant Priest to Hilborough & Oxborough groups) Day off Monday.

(For Wedding, Baptism & Church enquires 01842 879375 or email)

Dear friends,

It is a joy to write to you on this rather sunny morning where we continue to be immersed in the glorious Easter season. Where in the church’s cycle of readings set for this season we enjoy hearing again the many resurrection visions of Jesus Christ to the thousands of people who experienced these many powerful moments. So much so, that lives were changed instantly and many people came to faith through these experiences.

On Thursday 25^th May we celebrate that Jesus went back to his Father in heaven, known as Ascension Day. The disciples were instructed at this time to stay in Jerusalem and wait together for the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost.

Our lives so often are filled with endings and beginnings. Whether this is an ending of a lovely holiday and returning to work, or for our young people at this time who for some will be preparing to leave primary education and move on to a new beginning at high school.

The Ascension however although marked an ending in many ways, also spoke of promise in the future, where the Day of Pentecost was literally the birth of the Christian church…and so for Christians throughout the world we can well and truly shout with joy ‘Happy Birthday!’

In the Church of England during the Ascension-tide season we have by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York been encouraged to be immersed in a time of prayer known as ‘Thy Kingdom Come’, where each parish church has received its own candle to light every time the people meet in a time of prayer, to focus our prayers on more people coming to faith in Jesus Christ in the communities we live and serve. This has been very exciting, and even more exciting in that the first time we lit our Ascension candle in Mundford was at a special school Ascension service with our wonderful young people, teachers and families from Mundford Primary Academy. This experience itself fills me as a parish priest with great joy!

We wait now…in a time of hope and anticipation for the gift of the Holy Spirit to fall afresh on us this Pentecost.

Our Pentecostal reading from Acts says “When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place. And suddenly from heaven there came the sound like the rush of a violent wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. Divided tongues, as of fire appeared among them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other languages, as the Spirit gave them ability”

Wow, what an amazing start to the early Christian church!

In the Hilborough, Oxborough and Mundford groups of churches this Pentecost (4^th June), we will be like those early disciples….this year we wait together in St George’s Gooderstone from 11am…..and wait for the gift of the Holy Spirit….Come and share in this wonderful celebration…and together let’s see what a ‘new beginning’ may mean for us in this place….

With every love and blessing,
Your parish priest, Zoe

Revd. Zoe Ferguson (Priest in Charge Mundford Group Benefice & Assistant Priest to Hilborough & Oxborough groups) Day off Monday.

(For Wedding, Baptism & Church enquires 01842 879375 or email)

Dear friends,

By the time you sit and read this reflection, Easter Sunday and the school holidays will probably feel like a distant memory and hopefully the weather will be blessing us with some warmer sunshine as we head on into the summer months.

In the church calendar following Easter Day we begin to look towards the Ascension, where the Gospels report Jesus as having ascended bodily into heaven with his disciples left behind in praise and worship.  Ascension Day this year falls on Friday 26^th May, however we will celebrate this significant event on the Sunday following in church.

Jesus’ ascension into heaven falls 40 days following Easter Day.

Numbers in the Bible always hold great significance, with the Israelites having been in exile for 40 years following Moses to the promised land.  Moses himself went up the mountain for 40 days and nights before receiving from God the 10 Commandments.

Jesus, following his baptism went into the wilderness for 40 days before beginning his earthly ministry, and today the number 40 in the church calendar is significant in that we begin Lent on Ash Wednesday and 40 days later celebrate Easter Day.

The number 40 in biblical times actually meant ‘a really long time’ and for those of us when we reach our 40^th birthdays, if you are like me, can feel we have been around for a rather long time….!

The Ascension itself on my trip to the Holy Land a couple of years ago was said to have taken place in the same landscape where Jesus had given his disciples instruction in prayer, with the words of the Lord’s Prayer.  A rather wonderful connection here with prayers rising up towards heaven, as our Lord had once arisen bodily into heaven itself.

The great significance too of this season is that in the 40 days prior to this event, the post – resurrected Jesus had been seen by a significant number of people in different situations, where we hear in the gospels of Thomas doubting until he physically saw the risen Christ, to the event on the road to Emmaus when the people only recognized Jesus when he broke bread and shared this with them.

This season is a truly remarkable time, as we look back at events long ago, but holds great significance with us today in that it is a period of watching and waiting. Watching for the signs that God is among us, and preparing ourselves for the major event of Pentecost (Whitsun), when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples with what was described as tongues of fire – how amazing these things must have been, and how amazing they are to us in this day and age, because all of these events give us hope, in what can seem a really challenging time in our world, especially when we hear of events like that of the Westminster bridge tragedy and the way that humanity can be so cruel to one another.

But the Christian faith in all its seasons gives us hope, that our Saviour Jesus Christ is right there with us in the midst of it all in the gift of grace in our prayers.

With love and blessings, your parish priest, Zoe

Revd. Zoe Ferguson (Priest in Charge Mundford Group Benefice & Assistant Priest to Hilborough & Oxborough groups) Day off Monday.

(For Wedding, Baptism & Church enquires 01842 879375 or email)