Trinity Times - April 2012

TRINITY TIMESthe parish magazine of Holy Trinity

APRIL 2012Issue number 85

TRINITY TIMES Page 3

EASTER

Mark Twain is famous for – among many other things –saying, “There are lies, damn lies and statistics”. If youwere to say that one of the following statistics is good news,and the other is bad news, which way round would it be?

One in three marriages ends in divorce.

65% of the British population believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

I suspect that quite a number would say that the first is ‘bad’ news and thesecond is ‘good’ (what a healthy majority 65% is!). Well, it could be arguedthat the first is actually a very good statistic, because despite the huge pressureson marriage these days, it is still the case that two out of every three survive.The second is a very bad statistic because even though 65% say that theybelieve Jesus rose from the dead, that “belief” has little or no impact on the waythey lead their lives, otherwise there would be huge Christian churches andcommunities needed to accommodate the 40 million or so fired up Christiansaround the place.

As Easter is celebrated again, it is worth reminding Christians in particular thatsimply BELIEVING that Jesus rose from the dead means next to nothing. Itonly means something if you believe that he is therefore with you, and can(through prayer, faith exploration, worship, self-giving love and service)become more and more real to you and more and more of a living presence inthe way you live (and die). It only means something if it translates into a beliefthat although life is full of ‘crucifixions’, Jesus being resurrected, real andpresent means that suffering (like his, and like so many people’s) is never thelast word.

Most importantly, a true embracing of the reality of the resurrection is anantidote to the distorted forms of Christianity that are sadly on the increase:those that claim that being a Christian is some form of ‘insurance policy’against suffering and misfortune. It is a heavy irony that those Christians whosay most about Jesus being alive, and the transforming power of the resurrectionand the Holy Spirit also often take the view that if you are ill, dying or sinful,you are not praying hard enough, or haven’t been ‘saved’. This is a denial of atrue Easter faith that knows instead that we carry our crosses daily; and thatWITHIN and THROUGH that cross-carrying, resurrection becomes a reality.

With love

Father Andy

If you are new to the area and/or reading Trinity Times for the first time -Welcome. Set out below are a few details about the Church which we hope

you will find helpfulAlso check out our website at www.holytrinitygosport.co.uk

We arehere

You will find us on theeast side of Haslar Road;look for the steeple - youcan’t miss us!

We are a Church ofEngland Church in theAnglican Diocese ofPortsmouth and we arelinked with ChristChurch, Stoke Road.

In addition to the timeslisted on the followingpage, we are normallyopen to visitors Tuesdayto Friday 1.30 to 3.30pm and Saturday 10.00am to 2.00 pm.

We worship ‘in the round’which we find is a veryfriendly way of worship-ping - it enhances the feelingof ‘family’ in the church.We use incense at ourSunday services (only) - inother words we are a“Smells & Bells” church.We have hearing loop andvoice enhancement systemsinstalled. This work wasfunded by the NationalLottery through Big Lotteryfund

Our vicar is Rev Andy Davis. (We usually call him Fr. Andy butAndy is OK) As our priest, he is always happy to see anyone whoneeds to talk with him about anything. He can be contacted at9 Britannia Way, Gosport. Tel: 023 9258 0173 or Mobile: 0770991 9602. [email protected] (He is not usuallyaround on Mondays)

And Also

We have 2 meetingrooms available for hire;one holds a maximum of60 people and the other12 people. Kitchenfacilities are available.There are toilets on theground floor and a lift tothe first floor.Telephone Fr Andy fordetails.

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SERVICE TIMES

SUNDAYS**

Parish Mass 11.00 amVespers and Benediction 6.00 pm

(A quiet, reflective service to end one week and begin another)

✠MONDAYS

Father Andy’s day off

✠TUESDAYSMass 9.30 am

(30 minutes, quiet, prayerful, peace-giving)

✠WEDNESDAYS5.45 pm Prayer Group

(An informal gathering, to pray – quietly and simply –For the church, the world and those suffering and in need)

Mass 6.30 pm(30 minutes, quiet, prayerful, peace-giving)

✠FRIDAYSMass 5.00 pm

(30 minutes, quiet, prayerful, peace-giving)

**On each occurrence of a fifth Sunday in a month, a joint service will be heldalternating between Holy Trinity and Christ Church. The next joint service willbe held at 11.00 a.m. at Holy Trinity on Sunday 29th April 2012


Trinity Times is published by Holy Trinity Church, Gosport, Hampshire. It is distributedfree of charge to more than 1,000 households and 160 shops in the Parish. You can alsoview in colour on our website: www.holytrinitygosport.co.uk

Editor: Joan Millard

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FROM MAUNDY THURSDAY TO EASTER DAY

Maundy Thursday – time to wash feet

Maundy Thursday is famous for two things. The first is one of the final acts thatJesus did before his death: the washing of his own disciples’ feet. Jesus washedhis disciples’ feet for a purpose: “A new command I give you: Love oneanother. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” His disciples wereto love through service, not domination, of one another. In Latin, the openingphrase of this sentence is ‘mandatum novum do vobis’ The word ‘maundy’ isthus a corruption of the Latin ‘mandatum’ (or command).

But Thursday was also important because it was on thatnight that Jesus first introduced the Lord’s Supper, orwhat we nowadays call Holy Communion. Jesus and hisclose friends had met in a secret upper room to share thePassover meal together - for the last time. And there Jesustransformed the Passover into the Lord’s Supper, saying,‘this is my body’ and ‘this is my blood’ as he, the Lamb of God, prepared to diefor the sins of the whole world. John’s gospel makes it clear that the LastSupper took place the evening BEFORE the regular Passover meal, and thatlater Jesus died at the same time that the Passover lambs were killed.

Good Friday – the day the Son of God died for you

Good Friday is the day on which Jesus died on the cross. He wascrucified at 9am in the morning, and died six hours later, at 3pm. It isthe most solemn day in the Christian year, and is widely marked bythe removal of all decorations from churches. In Lutheran churches,the day was marked by the reading of the passion narrative in agospel, a practice which lies behind the ‘passions’ composed by

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685 – 1750). Both the St Matthew Passion and the StJohn Passion have their origins in this observance of Good Friday.

EASTER – the most joyful day of the year

Easter is the most joyful day of the year for Christians. Christhas died for our sins. We are forgiven. Christ has risen! We areredeemed! We can look forward to an eternity in his joy!Hallelujah!

The Good News of Jesus Christ is a message so simple that youcan explain it to someone in a few minutes. It is so profound


that for the rest of their lives they will still be ‘growing’ in their Christian walkwith God.

Why the name, ‘Easter’? In almost every European language, the festival’sname comes from ‘Pesach’, the Hebrew word for Passover. The Germanic word‘Easter’, however, seems to come from Eostre, a Saxon fertility goddessmentioned by the Venerable Bede. He thought that the Saxons worshipped herin ‘Eostur month’, but may have confused her with the classical dawngoddesses like Eos and Aurora, whose names mean ‘shining in the east’. SoEaster might have meant simply ‘beginning month’ – a good time for startingup again after a long winter.

MAUNDY THURSDAY TO EASTER DAY ATHOLY TRINITY

MAUNDY THURSDAY5th April at 6.30 p.m.

Mass of the Last Supper and Vigilof Prayer until 9.00 p.m.

GOOD FRIDAY6th April at 12 noon

Good Friday Liturgy

HOLY SATURDAY7th April at 8.00 p.m.

The Easter Liturgy. Please bringbells, rattles, whistles, drums etcto make a ‘JOYFUL NOISE’

EASTER DAYSunday 8th April at 11.00 a.m.

When we celebrate Jesus’resurrection.

Also on the 6th April “Churches Together in Gosport” will hold theirGood Friday Service, outside St. Mary’s Roman Catholic Church inHigh Street (or, if wet, in Christ Church)

Please join us at any or all of these services - you will bevery welcome.

TEA TIME CONCERTS 2012

At Holy Trinity we continue our “Tea-Time Concerts” at 3.30 pm on the firstSunday of each month. Admission to all the concerts is free although a retiringcollection is taken for the benefit of the organ restoration project. All themusicians give freely of their talents as their contribution to this project.Afternoon tea is served in the Capper Room after each concert.

These concerts, which last no longer than an hour, present the opportunity tohear fine music in the generous acoustic of this beautiful Church. Why not giveit a try? It’s a very pleasant way in which to while away a Sunday afternoon.

Details of two Sunday events in May are set out below.

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SUNDAY 6th MAY

TALK ON HANDEL

by

PROFESSOR GRAYDON BEEKS (USA)

followed by

CHORAL CONCERT

by

UNIVERSITY OF PORTSMOUTH CHAMBERCHOIR and BAROQUE ORCHESTRA

SUNDAY 20th MAY at 6.OO p.m.

FESTAL EVENSONG

sung by PORTSMOUTH CATHEDRAL CHOIR

and Blessing of the Organ by

The RIGHT REVEREND CHRISTOPHER FOSTERBISHOP OF PORTSMOUTH


DATES FOR THE DIARY

Apart from the Sunday Tea Time Concerts, we have the following additionaltreats in store for April and May - watch this space for more information.

WEDNESDAY 18th APRIL

at 7.30 p.m.

Programme of Music from

HOLY TRINITY STRING QUARTETIN RESIDENCE

SATURDAY 5th MAY

at 7.30 p.m.

HANDEL ORGAN CONCERTOSand contemporary music

ANDREW CLEARY Director of Music

and Chamber Orchestra fromCHRIST’S HOSPITAL SCHOOL

SATURDAY 18th MAY

at 7.30 p.m.

Choral Concert of Music

by

FAREHAM PHILHARMONIC CHOIRWith Organ and Piano

Tickets: £11, concessions £9.50, children £2


From: Great Aunt Pru <[email protected]>To: Tamsin OzlingSubject: Never satisfied

My dear Tammy,

How are your preparations going? I know it’s a few months yet before youtravel to the UK but the time goes so quickly that you’ll be boarding that flightbefore you can say ‘Great Aunt Pru’.

Your mum has sent me some photographs of the “mini” cyclone/tornado thatwhipped through parts of Townsville towards the end of March - I must saythat seeing the damage it did, it didn’t look very “mini” to me; I was thankful tohear that because you were on the edge of it you suffered very little damage.

Your mum also told me of the torrential rain you’ve been having; I know itcauses problems at the time but at least your reservoirs will be filling ready forthe dry season.

As you’ve heard, we have been very short of rain in parts of England which isalready causing problems with crop growing. As I told your mum, we havebeen having unseasonably warm, dry weather for a while which of coursemost people want to see continue; but then many of those same peoplecomplain because their gardens are dry and they have to spend time wateringthem; so you hear people say “What lovely weather….but we need somerain”.

It’s just the same in the winter when we have mild weather and you hearpeople say “It’s so mild I haven’t needed to use my heating very much….butwe do need some really cold weather to kill off the winter bugs”!

God must become exasperated with us sometimes (often?) because we arenever satisfied; whatever weather we have, we want something else. When Isee the problems many parts of the world have where there has been no, orlittle, rain for a couple of years and people are starving, I know how fortunate Iam to live in such a temperate climate….particularly in this part of the country.

Then when I’m trotting round with the watering can I findmyself thinking, “It’s about time we had some rain”. Yousee….never satisfied!

With much love

Great Aunt Pru

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THOUGHT LINES....

TIME

Take time to think:it is the source of power.

Take time to play:it is the secret of perpetual youth.

Take time to read:it is the fountain of wisdom.

Take time to pray:it is the greatest power on earth.

Take time to love and to be loved:it is a God-given privilege.

Take time to be friendly:it is the road to happiness.

Take time to laugh:it is the music of the soul.

Take time to give:it is too short a day to be selfish.

Take time to work:it is the price of success.

Take time to do charity:it is he key to heaven.

Anonymous


....AND SMILE LINES

What Can I Eat for Easter?

Can't eat beef......mad cow.Can't eat chicken...... bird flu.Can't eat eggs..... Salmonellla.Can't eat pork.....fears that bird flu will infect piggies. Also trichinosis.Can't eat fish....... heavy metals in the waters.Can't eat fruits and veggies....... insecticides and herbicides.Can't eat potatoes, pasta, bread, rice.......nasty carbs .Hmmmmmmmm! I believe that leaves.......chocolate.

Problem Solving

There was an engineer, manager, and a programmer driving down a steepmountain road. The brakes failed and the car careened down the road out ofcontrol. Half way down the driver managed to stop the car by running it againstthe embankment narrowly avoiding careening off the cliff. They all got out,shaken by their narrow escape from death, but otherwise unharmed.

The manager said, "To fix this problem we need to organize a committee, havemeetings, exchange ideas, develop a solution." The engineer said, "No thatwould take too long, besides that method never works. I have my trusty penknife here and will take apart the brake system, isolate the problem and correctit." The programmer said, "I think you’re both wrong! I think we should allpush the car back up the hill and see if it happens again."

Wrong number?

I still have a lot of trouble with wrong numbers. Yesterday I dialed the RedCross and got the HMRC in error. So the HMRC operator asked me whatnumber I had dialed. I said, "The Red Cross, you know, where they take peo-ple’s blood." She said, "Well, you aren't too far off, are you?"

Gone fishing

A wife returning from a fishing trip with her husband was telling her troubles toa neighbour. "I did everything all wrong again today," she said. "I talked tooloud, I used the wrong bait, I reeled in too soon, and - I caught more fish than hedid."

TRINITY TIMESPage 14

(Mollie’s Tribute to Henry Heath, a faithful Church Memberwho died recently)

I was little more than a puppy when we started totake Uncle Henry home from church although hestill walked all the way to church.

To begin with, Sascha and I didn't sit on his lap,but when he got to know us better he liked tostroke us as we sat with him. They used to sit inthe car and chat for ages.

When upright Christie walked with him to the hospitalit took them hours and hours but Uncle Henry wouldn’t give in and wouldn’tstop for a rest. He used to walk lots and Aunty Margaret, his sister, said that heused to run up and down mountains and was a very important person in theScouts.

When he walked in the town, lots of people called him ‘The Prophet’, becausehis hair always flew about like my ears do, and because he had a big, long stickto help him walk. Sadly, sometimes he fell over.

He started to fall more often because his arms and legs didn’t work like theyshould and we often needed to bathe him when he’d fallen over; but he alwaysgot better really quickly, maybe because he only used who-me, homey-something (homeopathy), like our upright uses to make me better. One day hefell in the road and got taken to hospital. When he came home, he said heneeded to practise walking again, so after church we sometimes went to the golfcourse, or to the garden. It’s got a fountain that Sascha and I always tried toclimb in but couldn’t because our legs weren't long enough.

After he had been really poorly they decided that he couldn’t live in his houseany more and so he went to live in a big house where he was really sad andbored. When Father Andy took him communion there we liked to see the duckslooking through the window and everyone used to make a big fuss of me.

Then he got quite muddled and they said that he couldn’t stay with them anymore, so they made him go to another place where he got really ill and had soreplaces on him, and very soon he had to go back to the hospital.

Now he’s gone to be with his grandpa and he’ll see Sascha. Well our uprightsaid he’s peasful now - I don’t know why he’d want to be full of peas, but theyall give each other the peas in the church service. All I know is we won’t seehim any more, which is very sad because he was such a special person andwe’ll miss hearing him laugh.

Documents

Trinity Times - April 2012