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St Andrew's Church, Taunton

St. Andrew's Colour Supplement

Articles by Christians around the world

Items posted here are reproduced by permission, and are intended as a catalyst for thought, discussion and prayer as appropriate. Articles do not necessarily reflect the views of the webmaster or St. Andrew's Church, Taunton.

Sunday 30 June

To travel, or not?

by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Travel, it has been said, broadens the mind. A recent Radio 4 programme challenged this belief and suggested that most British travellers do anything but broaden their mind on holiday. Meant in fun, this questioning of why we travel got me thinking.

The body in the library

by Ben Care of LICC

There is little that we like better, it seems, than settling down to a cosy murder.

A quick body count suggests that this is how many of us unwind – this week alone we can tune into over forty-five hours of detective drama on terrestrial television. Six of the current top ten bestselling hardbacks, and four of the top ten paperbacks, are concerned with one form of crime or another.

Sunday 15 June

Unlikely journeys

A sermon preached on Sunday 15^th June 2008 - 4^th after Trinity (Year A)

by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's.

Some time ago I was on a family holiday in Ireland with my parents and my younger brother – we went for three weeks and it rained every day. However we did a lot of exploring of the countryside with the aid of a map and my mother’s navigational skills.

On one occasion we reached a fork in the road. According to the map we needed to take the left fork but the signpost clearly indicated that we should go right. It was raining, there was no-one around and we spent some time checking the map and looking with confusion at the sign post. After a while a gentleman came out from one of the houses nearby and, without speaking to us or even acknowledging us in any way, walked up to the sign post and twisted it round so that it now told us that the left hand fork was correct!

Sunday 8 June

Love, actually

by Peter Fulljames of St. Andrew's Church

Love, actually, is what the Trinity is all about. Perhaps also love is what Christian Aid is all about. A poster for Christian Aid Week had a picture of a school in Ghana for children with disabilities, with the words “love – the motivation” and the words of Paul “Love endures, it trusts, hopes, perseveres”. Sometimes people choose to put something in the Christian Aid envelope because it is “Christian”. They recall Jesus saying “love your neighbour as yourself”, they realize the neighbour can be any human being in need – whether in Ghana, or Bolivia or Bangladesh - so to give is an act of Christian love.

But this I know...

by Brett Jordan of LICC

I must be one of the few westerners who has never watched an episode of ER. However, I recently received an email with a YouTube link to an excerpt from the latest (14th!) season.

The clip introduces a cancer and guilt-riddled ex-prison doctor (Truman) being counselled by a gentle, sincere and compassionate chaplain (Julia). One of Truman’s roles as a prison doctor had been administering lethal injections to convicted murderers. He relates how one of them was later found to have been framed for his crime, and how he believes he ignored God’s attempt to prevent him from killing an innocent man.

Sunday 1 June

Love your enemy

by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

A sermon preached on the 1st Sunday after Trinity

Leviticus chapter 19, verse 18:

"You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge against any of your people, but you shall love your neighbour as yourself: I am the Lord. "

Wow! What a shock I had when I first discovered this verse. Most of us, if not all, know it well from the NT - Matthew and Mark each attribute the words to Jesus. Luke gives them to a young lawyer as an introduction to the parable of the good Samaritan. But until I was in my fifties, probably, I had no idea that Jesus (or the young lawyer) was quoting Hebrew scripture.

Then, in the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus takes it further. He tells us to love our enemies and pray for our persecutors. It's as if he's asking us "What more are you doing?"

Neither privileged nor private

by Nick Spencer of LICC

You might think it would be to discredit your opponents’ facts or undermine their logic but, in fact, the best way is simply to deny them a voice in the first place.

Although few people openly seek to silence their adversaries, when those adversaries happen to be religious (as has often been the case with the HFE bill this week), it is so much easier to deploy the “religion is private” card than actually to engage with their arguments. Hence Jackie Ashley in Monday’s Guardian: ‘There is no sensible conversation between the opposing views to be had… live according to your beliefs, but don't try to impose them on the rest of us.’

Sunday 11 May

What's wrong with Mark?

by Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

As some of you will have spotted, the gospel for this year is Matthew. There will be bits of John and the others thrown in from time to time, but it is mostly Matthew.

Now, as we know, Mark is the first gospel and Matthew bases his account on what Mark wrote. The question becomes: if we had a perfectly good story of the life of Jesus, why did Matthew think it was necessary to “improve on” Mark?

Pentecost

A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - on Sunday 11 May 2008

Michele Guinness is a writer, a Christian, a vicar’s wife. She’s also Jewish. She tells the story of a Passover meal she and her husband organised for their congregation. As one man was leaving the hall he said to her, “Well that was very nice, thank you. It’s good to know that the Jews use our psalms as well”.

Jesus was Jewish, he knew the psalms and he would have celebrated Pentecost as well because Pentecost was a Jewish feast long before the disciples started speaking in tongues. Indeed, it still is a Jewish feast.

A listening prayer

By Gordon Atkinson

I can't imagine absolute silence, neither can I hear it. Even when I'm in a quiet place, my mind produces its own ghostly, seashell sound. The noise in my head is a faint but high-pitched whine accompanied by a lower rumbling that sounds like an engine pulsing away in the distance. These seem to be the default sounds of my brain. It's what I hear when there is nothing else to hear.

Sunday 20 April

St. Stephen

A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - Sunday 20 April 2008

St Stephen’s day is, of course, on the 26^th December and for that reason I think it often gets overlooked. So I thought that today would be a good opportunity to remind ourselves of the story of Stephen, who he was and how he became the first Christian martyr.

Martyr, incidentally means “witness” and perhaps as we follow Stephen’s story we’ll remember that he was the first Christian whose witness to Jesus,

the Way, the Truth and the Life brought about his death, not on a cross but under a hail of stones and rocks.

You're hired!

by Jason Gardner of LICC

I sacked Simon Smith. Yep, I gave this week’s hapless contestant on The Apprentice his marching orders. OK, the TV evidence is that it was the lovable epitome of all things shrewd and opportunist, Sir Alan Sugar, who fired him – but at least I was there to back up his decision. As part of the studio audience for The Apprentice: You’re Fired!, the follow-up show that interviews each week’s victim, I got to wave my red card at Simon when the mob was asked how we’d have handled him.

What a nightmare it was...

a letter from Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

How often do we use that phrase when things have gone wrong. Yet, a nightmare is a dream which causes a strong unpleasant emotional response from the sleeper, typically fear or horror, or the sensations of pain, falling, drowning or death. I had one recently and I woke in tears. Yet, that was tame when you consider what the disciples went through from Palm Sunday up to and including Easter Day.

Sunday 13 April

Emmaus road

a sermon preached by by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church, on Sunday 6 April 2008

‘Jesus drew near and went with them’

A dearly loved parish priest always started his wedding address with this text. And what a good message it is, especially for newlyweds as they set out on their married life.

‘Jesus drew near and went with them’

But this is starting in the middle of Luke’s story of Easter Day. We seldom hear the full story as Luke tells it:

READ MORE

Emmaus

A poem by Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury

First the sun, then the shadow

so that I screw my eyes to see

my friend's face, and its lines seem

different, and the voice shakes in the hot air.

Sunday 6 April

Seven Ways to Change the Workd

by Nick Spencer of LICC

God, according to Alastair Campbell’s diaries, is a political ‘disaster area’.

‘British people are not like Americans,’ he wrote on 20 March 1996, who ‘seem to want their politicians banging the Bible the whole time.’ In Britain, by contrast, those ‘who didn't believe didn't want to hear it; and the ones who did felt the politicians who went on about it were doing it for the wrong reasons.’

Sunday 30 March

Discipleship and the bill

by Nigel Hopper of LICC

‘Those MPs who have approached me’, the Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff told Radio 4 recently, ‘have said: “I don’t think this is right. I accept the teachings of the church, yet I’m a government minister, or I’m a Labour MP. Can I discuss with you the moral dilemma I have?”’

Sunday 23 March

Setting out

a sermon preached on Easter Day 2008

by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

I was the same age as many of the children here today when I set out on my journey of faith. My parents also took my younger sister to church, and when she was three she was playing with the hassocks before the service. But when she heard the organist playing, she looked up & asked, ‘Mummy is that Jesus practising?’

The Lord is here

A sermon preached by Katharine Smith - Reader at St. Andrew's - on

Maundy Thursday 2008

What would it be like if Jesus was here with us this evening? Later we’ll affirm that the Lord is here; his Spirit is with us. But what if he was actually here,

sitting in a pew in front of you, behind you, up in the choir stalls?

We wouldn’t necessarily know him, of course. We might think he’s a visitor

or someone responding to our Easter card and invitation.

From Christmas to Easter

a letter from Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

With Christmas and Easter being so close together this year, it is a good opportunity to see the links between the two. I read recently in a short book by Fr R E Brown (SS) that gospels are written “backwards” – like novels, they work up to a conclusion which is already in the writer’s mind before the story begins.

The crunch

by Paul Valler of LICC

When America sneezes, the infection quickly spreads through the global financial system. As a result of her recent ‘credit crunch’, lenders and debt junkies alike worldwide are being crushed by the weight of defaults. Greed has suddenly given way to fear, destroying the market value of major banks that have looked at their reserves and found they have none. Slashed interest rates confront us with the truth that money is not as valuable as we thought.

Sunday 16 March

Best of British

by Jason Gardner of LICC

‘I pledge allegiance to the Queen, and to the Union Jack. I solemnly swear to mow my lawn in stripes and eat fish and chips once a week and chicken tikka masala once a month. I will endeavour to holiday in a static caravan in Bognor every year, and from this day forward will, without fail, watch the Last Night of the Proms and the FA Cup Final.’

Sunday 9 March

Thank you for the music

By St. Andrew's Webmaster, Adrian Smith

I have a confession to make.

I haven't been to church since Christmas. I've been going through one of those phases that I experience from time to time when 'church' doesn't help. In fact, it becomes a source of stress and a catalyst for depression. Far from being nurturing or uplifting it feels like yet another demand in my life, which already feels overburdened. Rather than seeing the good things about the place, everything is a disappointment. I feel angry with people for no good reason. I anticipate being asked to do things and expect that people will be negative, critical and nit picking about the things that I have done. So I stay away, because I find it impossible to hide how I feel, and attending in that frame of mind is unfair on other people and unhelpful to me.

Sunday 2 March

Tethered to Christianity

By Gordon Atkinson

I saw my father preach the other day. His hair is now white, and the skin on his face has loosened with age, but this is the same man whose face I saw above the pulpit throughout my childhood. He stood like a captain in the bow of the ship that he loves, confident that the vessel would rise and fall with his voice and break the waves of human need as it sailed to the promised land.

Life in cold blood

by Ben Care of LICC

After a chilly day spent wandering through the Chiltern Hills, I stopped at the corner of a field, pausing for a moment to take in the view. Suddenly, a stag burst through the hedgerow to my right. Then – after a split-second pause – twenty wild roe deer followed him, one after another.

Sunday 24 February

The assurance of hope

a letter from Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

Dear Friends,

As you read this we will be approaching one of the great high-lights of the church’s calendar: Holy Week and Easter. With the onset of spring, as the bulbs and blossoms proudly display their colours and the days are noticeably longer, Easter inevitably brings a sense of new hope.

Water

a sermon preached by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church on 24 February 2008

Water. cool, clear water. Cleansing, refreshing, life-giving.

Not dirty, muddy, sewage-infested water. Disease-ridden, polluting, threatening. What flood victims found in their homes, last summer, and what some people found in their homes for a second time, last month, in Gloucestershire.

On toilets and living with writers

By Gordon Atkinson - Real Live Preacher

A few years ago we were replacing the flooring in one of our bathrooms. I decided to do it myself, even though I'm not very “handy,” as they say. I had to remove the toilet and replace it after the tiles had been laid. This was something I had never done before.

Cloverfield

by Jason Gardner of LICC

I wonder if, before switching on the nightlight and retiring downstairs, the parents of the young J J Abrams told him there were monsters not only under the bed but also under the floorboards and clutching the limbs of the trees outside his window. The creative force behind TV’s Alias and Lost, Mission Impossible 3 and the current box-office hit Cloverfield has an unnerving knack for making you feel that, just off camera, just out of sight, some colossal, terrible force is about to make its presence known and change the way you think about life forever.

Sunday 17 February

"Perfect love drives out fear"?

by Nigel Hopper of LICC

“People may be surprised but I hope that that surprise will be modified when they think about the general question of how the law and religious community – religious principle – are best and most fruitfully accommodated.”

So said Rowan Williams on Radio 4’s The World at One last week when questioned about the likely response to his suggestion of greater recognition for Sharia Law in Britain. Needless to say, people’s surprise has been anything but modified. He’s been openly criticised, called on to resign and to reflect on whether he wouldn’t be happier in a university post, where it would be more acceptable to ‘kick around these sorts of ideas’.

Sunday 10 February

No secrets hidden: a sermon preached on Ash Wednesday 6 February 2008

by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Ash Wednesday 2008

Matthew 6.1-6, 16-21

“Almighty God,

to whom all hearts are open,

all desires known,

and from whom no secrets are hidden,

cleanse the thoughts of our hearts

by the inspiration of your Holy Spirit.”

I think this prayer will be at the heart of my reflections this Lent.

It offers a key to an understanding of both our readings this evening but perhaps particularly of the Gospel reading.

Sunday 3 February

Our eyes have seen Thy salvation

A sermon preached on Sunday 10 February 2008

by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Katharine's sermon will appear here at around midday on Sunday.

The golden arches at the pearly gates?

by Ben Care of LICC

It’s been fascinating tracking the frantic re-branding of McDonald’s over the past year. Dirty, plastic seating has been stripped out from many branches, and replaced with smart, green ‘linger’ zones, contemporary artwork and mood lighting. Alongside Big Macs, fresh salads are available for one’s delectation and only ethically certified coffee served. Rumours abound that a famous fashion designer will shortly redesign the employees’ uniforms. Now, in its latest coup, McDonalds has become an academic institution. It is one of only three organisations given ‘Awarding Body’ status by the government, enabling them to grant A-level style diplomas to their staff – an act of canny corporate largesse or a genuine attempt to value their staff?

Sunday 27 January

Fishing nets

by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Fishing nets made of twine.

Flax seed scattered on the earth, watered by the rain, and warmed by the sun

burst forth into new life. The fields turn green as the leaves burgeon, then ripple like sky blue silk as the summer breezes blow. The plants are harvested, processed and become thread some of which is woven into fine linen and some twisted into ropes and twine.

Looking forward to 2008

by Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

Having only just started to settle in myself here at St Andrews, 2008 will hopefully be a year to build on the work of previous vicars and also of the team who guided the parish through the vacancy.

Sunday 20 January

Closed for the season ?

More musings from webmaster Adrian Smith

There is something extraordinarily melancholy about a seaside resort out of season. Blackpool's promenade in a late afternoon, mid-January drizzle has had its soul washed away. Souvenir shops, amusement arcades and fish and chip cafés are hidden behind slatted shutters. Roller coasters and big wheels stand hulking and motionless in the mist. The few people to be seen are the year round dwellers of serried bungalows, huddled grey shapes that seem lacking in hope. The tacky illuminations advertising McDonalds, Doctor Who and a local radio station are dead. The Golden Mile is closed for the season and what's left behind is an air of desperation, a vestige of a summer life.

Sunday 13 January

Don’t put your Christmas away in a box

Bishop Peter Maurice, Bishop of Taunton, guides us into the New Year

We have had our fill of Christmas celebrations and now it is time to get back to the routine of every day and to get on with life as best we can. It is as if we really do not think that what we have celebrated at Christmas will make any real difference to who and how we will be in the days and weeks that follow.

Sunday 6 January

Precious gifts

a sermon preached at Epiphany - Sunday 6 January 2008

by Jeremy Harvey - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Light plays a central part in the Christmas and Epiphany stories. And more and more I realise that light is a precious gift, especially at this time of year when the light arrives late and departs early.

It seems that God thought so too. For light features very early in the story of creation. In the beginning God created the heavens and earth; an earth that was formless, empty and dark. And God said, ‘Let there be light’, and there was light. God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. (Genesis 1.3-4) Light arrives first! Before any other form or thing on our planet.

A special gift

by Tricia Anderson - Reader at St. Andrew's Church

A special gift .......... that's what the card said.

Peter, our middle son, asked what we would like for Christmas. Well, when you reach our age, there isn't much we want, not that can be bought for money, anyway,

2007

Christmas Day 25 December

Archbishop of Canterbury's Christmas Day Sermon 2007

News from the Archbishop of Canterbury - 25 December 2007

Eleven days ago, the Church celebrated the memory of the sixteenth century Spanish saint, John of the Cross, Juan de Yepes - probably the greatest Christian mystical writer of the last thousand years.

A man who worked not only for the reform and simplification of the monastic life of his time, but also for the purification of the inner life of Christians from fantasy, self-indulgence and easy answers.

Those who've heard of him will most likely associate him with the phrase that he introduced into Christian thinking about the hard times in discipleship - 'the dark night of the soul'.

Sunday 23 December

Learning from Joseph

A sermon preached by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church on 23 December 2007.

The baby is only just beginning to take a recognisable shape.

He’s tiny, curled up, waiting, growing, unaware of who he is and what his life will be. His mother, Mary, is betrothed to a man called Joseph. But he’s not Joseph’s son, not yet.

Joseph hasn’t yet decided what he’s going to do about this situation.

A concert for Kids for Kids

by Henry Haslam of St. Andrew's Church

I had a very memorable evening in London on December 12th. I had received an invitation to the annual Christmas concert to raise money for the charity Kids for Kids, so that I could hear my poem ‘A Gift of a Goat’ read by one of the charity’s trustees, Lord Cope of Berkeley, who had found it on this website and thought it suitable for the occasion: the poem (after some initial misunderstandings) does try to express the thinking behind what charities like KIDS FOR KIDS are doing.

A site for the environment

by Adrian Smith of St. Andrew's Church

Members of St. Andrew's Church (and anyone else interested in the environment for that matter) may be interested to know that I have just published a new website www.bathandwellsenvironmental.org.uk.

Sunday 16 December

Hello from Australia

by Frank and Maureen of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

Hi everyone

A note to let you know we arrived safely in Oz and our now settled in. Took us a while to get connected to a landline and the internet but now all ok.

We are in the middle of all the Christmas activities and yesterday Frank asked when we are going to have a day off!! All most enjoyable with dancing, meals out, boat trips and days out.

Archbishop's Christmas words of wisdom

News from the Archbishop of Canterbury

The Archbishop gave the following message on the Chris Evans show on BBC Radio 2 on 12 December 2007:

“One of the main things that Christmas means to me is that God actually likes the company of human beings.

At Christmas let the mystery take hold of you

A personal message for Christmas 2007 from Bishop Peter

of Bath and Wells

Courtesy of The Diocese of Bath and Wells

One of the most depressing aspects of Christmas for me is the television adverts that announce that the shops will be open again on 26 December. I think of the shop workers, who have struggled through the frantic preparations of other people’s Christmas, and who arrive at their own Christmas Day weary and unable to relax and enjoy the festival because they have to be back at work the next day.

Sunday 9 December

Waiting for Christ-mas

by Revd Jim Cox, Vicar of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

You can always tell when it's nearly harvest time, the shops are full of Christmas cards - or so we used to say in Birmingham.

Waiting is not very fashionable these days. Everything has to be instant – including the coffee --and the church can appear terribly out of touch when -it-keeps a whole season of waiting, which is what Advent really is. But actually, we do have to wait for some things in life and Advent still has the power to speak to the needs of modern people.

Bethlehem 2007

by Janet Fulljames of St. Andrew's Church Taunton

I had envisaged Bethlehem as a small town with shepherds on the surrounding hills! Today greater Bethlehem has a population of about 150,000 people. Travelling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem I was struck by the urban nature of the environment, new settlements and communities running into one another.

During October this year Peter and I spent 4 nights in Bethlehem. We were part of a Christians Aware Group, visiting pilgrimage sites and meeting local Christians in Israel and Palestine.

Sunday 2 December

Health Insurance in the US - a broken system

By Gordon Atkinson

Maybe you noticed I was gone for a few days. I had some pretty important stuff going on, and I just didn’t have any energy to write. I’m going to tell you what happened to us. I could have written this without so much detail, but I think the details might be important for someone who is in the same situation.

Four days ago Jeanene and I were looking at the real possibility of our entire family being medically uninsured. No insurance of any kind for us or our children...

Sunday 25 November

Christ the King

A sermon preached on Sunday 25 November 2007

by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Each of us has our own Feast day, our birthday; the day when we celebrate being alive; or an anniversary, an engagement, a wedding; occasions when we celebrate relationships.

Cards, flowers, gifts, perhaps a special meal or a ‘phone call tell us that our friends are glad to know us and that we make a difference to their lives just by being who we are.

Today we celebrate the feast of Christ the King. We celebrate Christ, risen, ascended and glorified. We bring out our royal red vestments and altar frontal.

The Railway Parish

St. Andrew's was built to serve the rapidly expanding area of Taunton which served the newly arrived Great Western Railway, and soon became known as "The Railway Parish". See a picture of locomotive 2913 Saint Andrew and learn more about the man who designed it.

We was robbed!

by Nigel Hopper of LICC

It has been a bad week for any football-loving family. First, they’re hit with the news that HM Revenue & Customs has lost two CDs containing personal data such as their names, dates of birth and bank account details, along with those of the other 25 million British citizens who receive Child Benefit. Then, they have to watch in horror and disbelief as England are beaten 3-2 by Croatia and thus fail to qualify for Euro 2008.

Sunday 18 November

The Act of Remembrance

by David Anderson, a member of St. Andrew's Church

I must thank Katharine for her recent article. It has inspired me to write a bit about the Act of Remembrance.

Initially, it was introduced to remember the signing of the armistice which ended the first World War on the eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month, and to remember the service personnel who lost their lives in that war. It was extended to include those service personnel who lost their lives in the second World War, and it was decided to hold a national Remembrance Sunday on the Sunday nearest to 11th November. Although the second world war finished in Europe in June 1945, how many of us remember that the war in the Far East lasted until August?

A Pilgrimage to Holy Russia (part II)

by Jean Hole of St. Andrew's Church

Last month I mentioned that churches were closed or destroyed following the 1917 revolution. Some churches were preserved as good architecture. Many of the icons from redundant churches were saved and are displayed in a museum in the Nevinsky Convent in Moscow.

Secret faults and presumptuous sins

a sermon preached at 8am on Sunday 18 November 2007

by Katharine Smith, Reader at St. Andrew's Church

Luke 21:5-19

We wouldn’t need to look through many newspapers this morning before we read reports of the things Jesus says will happen.

We have wars and insurrections; nation is set against nation, nations are divided within themselves. There are earthquakes, famines and floods, there are illnesses which spread like a plague through humans and animals

and there are many people who read into all these things the signs that the end times are upon us.

Sunday 11 November

Re-membering

A sermon preached by Tricia Anderson, Reader at St. Andrew's

I love words - words like Popocatapetl. (It's a volcano in Mexico, if you were wondering.) Words that roll around my mouth and tongue. But I also love thinking about words and their meaning.

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