A Reflection from our chaplain Chris . . . .

Matter of thanks!

One of the reference books I regularly dip into on my shelves is Times and Seasons. It contains the Church of England's recommendations, ideas and approved liturgies appropriate for each season of the year in the church calendar (i.e. Advent, Christmas, Epiphany etc.)

I love the title of that book!

It is pregnant with ideas and imagery for me: it evokes reflections on the fact
there are different seasons in our own lives, different seasons in the life of the world, specific moments (times) in life but also more extended seasons in life.
I love that title!
We are now in Easter Season, which runs from Easter Sunday through
Ascension Day to Pentecost. So much of the Christian story reminds us that
'matter matters', and Easter season is for me the 'icing on the cake' in the grand
story. The birth and life of Christ (incarnation) tells us that yes, God loves
matter so much that God becomes part of matter. But now we are taken
further with God transforming matter (resurrection at Easter), of receiving
matter back into Godself (Ascension) and God sending God's Spirit who
continues to move everywhere within matter (Pentecost).

Matter matters!
A deep sense of awe and then thankfulness wells up within me as I start to
realise these things. It is a story of deep, profound integration that is true for
each of us personally, as well as for the world and cosmos beyond ourselves.
This is the very heart of the reason I understand we are called to care for the
earth. The late Pope Francis reminded us of this profound fact.
The earth was entrusted to us in order that it be mother for us, capable of
giving to each one what is necessary to live... The earth is generous and holds
nothing back from those who safeguard it. The earth which is mother of all,
asks for respect, not violence.
So I am deeply thankful for this season of Easter.

Whilst on the matter of thankfulness and season (now here's a segue!), I
cannot close this reflection without saying a huge thank you to Elizabeth
Cordone as she steps back from her role as editor of Cross Border. I want to
say a huge thank you on behalf of us all for her work, energy, inspiration,
commitment and love for the community in making the Cross Border happen
each month. She has seen the Cross Border through a long season in the life
of the church, and has now decided it is time to hand it over for others to take
where it will.

Thank you, Elizabeth, for all you have done for us in this season
of the life of our community! We are now exploring where next with the
Cross Border .... ideas welcome!
Blessings
Chris

 You’re warmly invited to join us once a month in Bordighera, Italy,

for an informal Eucharist service — a time of reflection, community, and worship in a relaxed setting.

Wednesday 08 July, 10h30

The English Cemetery Chapel Bordighera, Italy.

For more information see The Rev'd Chris.

God in Music

'Glorious the song when God's the theme': the Stabat Mater May is traditionally the month of Mary, the mother of Jesus.

When we read of Mary in the Gospels, we sense the heartache and trial of much of her life; a teenage mother giving birth in a stable, fleeing with her new-born baby and Joseph to Egypt, losing the child Jesus while on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, following her son on his ministry but always in the background, and there at the foot of the cross as her son is crucified. It is then Mary must have thought back to that occasion in the temple when Simeon took her child and told her that a sword would pierce her own soul.
That sense of heartache and the sorrow it brings is poignantly expressed in
a beautiful poem of the Middle Ages called Stabat Mater, which pictures Mary
at Calvary and that sword of desolation and sadness that pierces her soul. We
are not sure who wrote this poem. It is ascribed to Jacopone da Todi, who
became a Franciscan friar on the death of his wife in the 13th century. The
contemplation of Mary's sorrows in the Stabat Mater has inspired many
composers, and there are wonderful settings by Palestrina, Rossini, Dvorak,
Verdi and Poulenc.
This month let's focus on a very simple setting, but one that captures those
searing pangs of sorrow at the heart of the poem. It is by Antonio Vivaldi,
who was born in Venice in 1678. In 1703 he was ordained a priest, but by
then he had made his name as a skilled violinist and composer. He continued
to compose throughout his life; a vast amount that includes some 40 operas
(though only 18 survive), 400 concertos, and over 100 choral works. In 1730
Charles de Brosses described him as 'an old man with a prodigious fury for
composition.' For much of his life Vivaldi was music director of the Ospidale
della Pieta, a music school for girls. Then in 1740 he left Venice hoping for
preferment in Vienna. That was not to be, and his final days were marked by
poverty and neglect, and in 1741 burial in a pauper's grave.
Most of us know Vivaldi through the brilliance and colour of 'The Four
Seasons' and his setting of the Gloria. The tone is more restrained in his
setting of the Stabat Mater. There is a very fine CD recording entitled 'Vespers of Sorrow' where the work is linked to a sonata, a psalm setting and
the Magnificat for an imagined celebration of our Lady's feast. The Stabat
Mater is a long poem and Vivaldi restricted himself to setting 8 verses for
contralto and strings; the solo voice standing for Mary as she sings of the
despair and agony as the mother of Jesus. The opening verse, 'At the cross her
station keeping' captures the intensity of emotions with the throbbing rhythms
of the accompaniment – that mood recurs throughout the work. And then with
the verse, 'Eja Mater, fons amoris' (O thou Mother! Fount of love!) the violins
and viola accompany without any bass instruments. It is a pivotal point in the
work as the solo voice cries out 'Mater' across the heights and depths of the
music, leading into the prayer that the love of Mary will touch all human
hearts. The final verse set by Vivaldi begins 'Make me feel as thou hast felt,'
and so Mary stands for all mothers who have lost loved ones; perhaps sons
killed in Afghanistan, perhaps daughters dying through disease.
Mary's love for Jesus, her son, touches the hearts of them and of all parents.
Hers was a protective, sacrificial love that led her to the foot of the cross,
where Jesus gave his mother and John, the beloved disciple, into the care of
each other. The sacrificial love of a mother mirrored in the sacrificial offering
of her son in death.
Julian of Norwich meditated on this motherly love in her Revelations. In
chapter 60 she wrote, 'A mother's caring is the closest, nearest and surest for it
is the truest... As we know, our own mother bore us only into pain and dying.
But our true mother Jesus, who is all love, bears us into joy and endless living.
Blessed may he be! So the protective care of mother Mary cries out to us in
Vivaldi's setting of the Stabat Mater. The closing lines of that poem look to
Christ's maternal love like Mother Julian:

'Christ when Thee shall call me hence,
Be my mother, my defence,
Be thy cross of victory.'
The Reverend Michael Burgess

Life at St. James-the-Least
The Rectory,
St. James-the-Least

My dear Nephew Darren,
It seems that the basics of parish ministry are no longer taught in theological colleges. Don't you know anything about consulting your diary in public? When you are asked if you are free on a certain date, accepted practice is to open it so that the enquirer cannot quite see. You then shake your head sadly, saying you are committed to blessing a new tea urn, or on some other vital ecclesiastical activity that day. Then you regretfully give your apologies. You do not open the thing in full view of your enquirer, so he can see the blank pages! Really, it serves you right that you are now committed to going on Scout camp.
The last time I agreed to pay the Scouts a visit was when I found that there was a splendid restaurant only a mile away from their camp. I arrived and parked my car by the side of the river where they were all canoeing, wound down the car window and made encouraging noises for some minutes before explaining I had to find a garage for petrol. Several hours later, after an excellent lunch, I drove to where they were now rock climbing, wound down the car window and made encouraging noises for some minutes before explaining that I had a standing committee to return to that evening. It was a splendid day.
You, however, will experience the charms of two days under canvas. Whatever
site for your tent you choose will be the one that floods first. The early hours will undoubtedly find you wading about in water in the pitch dark, retrieving your sleeping bag and clothes – which you will then have to wear for the rest of the day.
Watch out for the food, as well, all camp food contains grass and usually sheep
droppings. This will make you ill, though for some reason Scouts thrive on it.
Whatever the weather and whatever activities you do each day, you will end up wet, chilled and bruised. At least your evenings will be warm – for you are bound to spend them at Casualty, with youngsters suffering from sprained ankles or dislocated shoulders.
My only advice is to use those hours in Casualty to practice the art of opening
your diary in a way that only YOU can see it.
Your loving uncle,

Eustace

Coins for Funds

Do you remember 'Barbara's Bottle'

which used to be at the back of the church to collect any current euro or sterling coins which were no longer needed by people returning to their home countries or which were weighing too heavily in their purses? Well, Beatrice has now taken on the collecting of such coins in aid of our Church funds, so please give the coins you no longer want to Beatrice or The Rev'd Chris. Thank you.