Page 20 - link magazine

Community News

PART TIME Of dust and hope – the journey to
CAFE
SUPERVISOR Easter Day
required on Fridays and alternate
Saturdays (8.30am to 2.30pm) and
to undertake administrative tasks
during the week.
Catering and supervisory
experience and experience
of working with volunteers
would be beneficial.
10 to 16 hours a week at £7.85 per
hour. (53 hours a calendar month).
For job description and further
details please contact
Janice Heath, Church Administrator on
01793 726000
[email protected]
The deadline for submissions is
12 noon on Friday 1 April 2016.

A few words from The Rt Revd Dr Lee Rayfield - Bishop of Swindon
St. John’s Haydon Wick
Given the timelines of publication for used in church, the narrative of
On Thames Avenue The Link, articles need to be written science tells us that we will return
next door to some weeks before an issue appears. to dust, and not only human beings
Having wondered how it must feel
but all creation; everything in the
Morrisons for those ordering their Christmas universe is destined to fade out.
Contact: stock in June, I am having a minor This narrative can feel profoundly
Revd Raymond Adams taste of bridging the present and the depressing and evacuate us of a
Tel: 634258 future in writing an article for Easter sense of hope.
at the very beginning of Lent. Deep within the human soul we
Sunday 9am Traditional communion service The start of Lent is known as feel that there must be more. The
Services 11am Eventful, contemporary worship Ash Wednesday and its theme is events of Easter stand as a sign and
with children’s groups meeting repentance, a word which conjures declaration that there is more and
www.stjohnshaydonwick.org.uk up the image of a preacher on the that the universe is not a wonderful
High Street exhorting passers-by to but eventually futile project.
Open to all, serving tea, coffee, cakes & light lunches turn from their sins and be saved; At the centre of Easter is a
Fridays and Saturdays: 10am - 2pm
most of those passing either stare singular human being, Jesus of
incredulously or give the preacher Nazareth, whose life, death and
a wide berth looking steadfastly resurrection from death gives rise
ahead. to a different narrative and leads
Easter, on the other hand, is us into a very different mindset and
about hope, a quality which all of lifestyle. To repent literally means
us feel the need of, especially in a to set our minds and attitudes in
world where so much seems fragile a new direction and recognise the
and uncertain. So if Ash Wednesday faithfulness of God.
is the beginning and Easter Day The resurrection is an
the conclusion of Lent, what is the announcement that death and
connection and how do hope and decay will not have the last word in
repentance hold together? God’s creation.
In church services on Ash The Christian faith holds out
Wednesday people are often given an invitation to align our own
the opportunity to be marked with living and our dying with that of
ash. A minister draws a cross on Jesus Christ and to experience
the forehead and says, “Remember the Spirit of hope, good news and
you are dust and to dust you will determination that characterised
return. Turn away from sin and his life.
In recent months we have

West Swindon and Lydiard Tregoze be faithful to Christ.” The ash – a mourned the passing of many well-
symbol of dust – is a reminder of
Church Partnership our mortality; that life is short and known figures who have impacted
fragile. On the face of it there does
our lives; David Bowie, Alan
Please join us in worship on Sunday mornings not seem much hopeful about this. Rickman and Terry Wogan to name
In our age, the wonders of science three. Many of us will also have lost
Westlea Church, Westlea School: 10am have enabled us to speak the friends and close relatives.
St Mary’s Lydiard Tregoze language of the bible in a fresh way. Easter tells us that there is a
- the church in the park: 10am Human beings are indeed made of unique historical figure whose life
Holy Trinity, Shaw: 10.30am dust – the ‘dust’ from stars. The and death have not only made a
difference to our past, but changed
elements which make up the earth
Toothill Church: 10.30am were formed in the heart of stars our future. To repent is to be
For details of these and our other services billions upon billions of years ago; transformed by this hope - not just
call the Partnership Office on 01793 874221 Joni Mitchell’s song ‘Woodstock’, once but regularly - and to receive
Email: [email protected] Website: WSwinlyd.org.uk made famous by Crosby, Stills, Nash it as the amazing good news it truly
& Young, refers to human beings is. May I wish you a very special
Anglican • Baptist • Methodist • United Reformed Church as ‘stardust’. Echoing the words Easter.
20 swindonlink.com n March 2016