Dear friends,
September brings us time of thanksgiving, and this year among our Harvest theme will be thanksgiving for our new born, whether our own nearest and dearest or our nation’s new born royal. Just as Harvest brings us opportunity to give thanks for all God provides through the purpose of His creation, Baptism gives us opportunity to enliven our thanks in promising ourselves to the purpose of God’s re-creative love in our lives. Whether our promise to trust to His love is made by our own witness as adults or as infants by the witness of our family in parents and godparents, we pledge ourselves to the hope of the Heavenly family through Father Son and Holy Spirit. Whether new in birth or Spiritual birth, this new beginning enlivens hope for ourselves, our families and where royal birth our nation and kingdom.
The Hope of God’s Kingdom is a natural reflection of this pledge to the best of our hopes, that in this day at your hand and mind should be seen that Heavenly Kingdom on Earth. Yes, ever the truth of this earthly life is to fall short, to turn from the Way, to break our promise…
The latest ‘thing’ – a home copier which takes for its ‘ink’ a feed of plastic coil and for its print out delivers any object you care to scan or input. Now any broken item can be reproduced as new in this latest ‘affordable’ gadget, promising an endless supply of new parts even according your imagination and inventiveness new unique ‘things’.
Baptism too is a celebration of our repair, that whatever is broken, in God’s love can be made whole, however far from the path we have strayed we may turn again to the Way of God’s love in Christ.
Baptism is a celebration of our being re-born in God’s love, no matter how often we fall we are assured we may rise anew to our part in Christ’s risen body, even in Him to perform new unique works.
May we rejoice in our hope, ever to look for the good in all things, and may we this Harvest time freely give of our thanks for our life, our health our food, by the harvest of our lives, that all things new be seen on earth, as in heaven Revelation 21:5.
Yours in Christ
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
Wednesday, September 4, 2013
Sunday, July 21, 2013
Rector's View - July 2013
Dear friends,
Are you one to find encouragement in all things or do you, as I, often lament as to how we may prevail? Among my favourite prayers, this of the Breton fisherman, more a statement of the obvious than a prayer ‘Lord, the sea is so big, my boat so small!’ If we are daunted at the task ahead, we in faith are to be sure God knows of our need. Christians used to be known as followers of the Way, the Way of Christ. And we follow His pattern, step by step, and celebrate His company in the lives of those around us. We may wonder at our young Queen’s resolve at her coronation to offer such steadfast service to her peoples and nation as we have witnessed these past sixty years. Of any who have achieved great things in life we may wonder at their perseverance.
Just as the Breton fisherman, awed at the task ahead, the first step is our pattern to meet the challenge, that is to step into the boat, and after the Way of Christ we may know God’s answer to our prayer is to assure us of the great company we keep each and every step along the Way of life’s pilgrimage. For the call of those of faith is ever to look for the good in all things and celebrate the same.
Many of you will be anticipating with joy journeys of Holy days, to arrive at whatever holiday destination you anticipate of course first is to set out. I hope you all will find blessing in your recreation, and return refreshed, and renewed, as in life’s pilgrimage we journey on.
For all, at home or abroad, another favourite prayer after the journeyman St Patrick. A prayer of protection, at each day’s break of camp in his journeying through the land, A prayer of hope that he may ever know God’s presence in Christ’s company in the bond of the anointing Spirit, each step to look for the good in all things.
In the strength of this prayer may we find the encouragement we need and offer hope to those we meet this day.
Christ be with you: Christ within you; Christ before you: Christ behind you;
Christ on your right: Christ on your left; Christ above you: Christ beneath you;
Christ around you: now and ever.
Bind unto yourself the name, the strong name of the Trinity;
by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation; Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
praise the Lord of your salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord. Amen.
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
Are you one to find encouragement in all things or do you, as I, often lament as to how we may prevail? Among my favourite prayers, this of the Breton fisherman, more a statement of the obvious than a prayer ‘Lord, the sea is so big, my boat so small!’ If we are daunted at the task ahead, we in faith are to be sure God knows of our need. Christians used to be known as followers of the Way, the Way of Christ. And we follow His pattern, step by step, and celebrate His company in the lives of those around us. We may wonder at our young Queen’s resolve at her coronation to offer such steadfast service to her peoples and nation as we have witnessed these past sixty years. Of any who have achieved great things in life we may wonder at their perseverance.
Just as the Breton fisherman, awed at the task ahead, the first step is our pattern to meet the challenge, that is to step into the boat, and after the Way of Christ we may know God’s answer to our prayer is to assure us of the great company we keep each and every step along the Way of life’s pilgrimage. For the call of those of faith is ever to look for the good in all things and celebrate the same.
Many of you will be anticipating with joy journeys of Holy days, to arrive at whatever holiday destination you anticipate of course first is to set out. I hope you all will find blessing in your recreation, and return refreshed, and renewed, as in life’s pilgrimage we journey on.
For all, at home or abroad, another favourite prayer after the journeyman St Patrick. A prayer of protection, at each day’s break of camp in his journeying through the land, A prayer of hope that he may ever know God’s presence in Christ’s company in the bond of the anointing Spirit, each step to look for the good in all things.
In the strength of this prayer may we find the encouragement we need and offer hope to those we meet this day.
Christ be with you: Christ within you; Christ before you: Christ behind you;
Christ on your right: Christ on your left; Christ above you: Christ beneath you;
Christ around you: now and ever.
Bind unto yourself the name, the strong name of the Trinity;
by invocation of the same, the Three in One and One in Three.
Of whom all nature hath creation; Eternal Father, Spirit, Word:
praise the Lord of your salvation, salvation is of Christ the Lord. Amen.
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Rector's View - June 2013
Dear friends,
In June May’s Ascension story provides the opening for that Great Day of the Church’s Gospel, the Day of Pentecost. The new beginning of Christ’s resurrection is seen in all who follow the Way of Christ, as His Spirit is poured out upon the priesthood of all believers.
What a dramatic beginning to this new Gospel, the pages of our lives. The beginnings of our own faith may too have drama, often they are less defined, begun in some conversation past which offered us hope and acceptance. Among the first of my calls as your new Rector was to our Primary School to lead their morning worship, and as the children filled the assembly hall the music and lyric of Bruno Mars proclaimed Your Amazing! Just the way you are. The Way God purposes for each of us is that we too, each and every one of us, are amazing for we are made of God’s image, Jesus revealed that love assuring those he meets that they are loved simply for whom they are, and revealing to us the Way we may better be whom God purposes us to be, through the Way of God’s love, the Way of Christ.
The Great Sunday of the Church, our own assembly time, counts the fifty days of Pentecost for a time of great blessing, for here we recount the stories of Resurrection Ascension and on the Fiftieth day the story of the Holy Spirit, the gifting of the Church with the abiding presence of our Father God in the name of he who revealed God’s love to the world, Jesus.
I have caught up with many stories as I begin to tread the Way of Christ along with you, and I look forward to hearing many more as we continue along the Way. We face many challenges, there are many trials in life, but by the assurance of Pentecost we are to know we may have strength to endure and more, see amidst this life the blessing of God’s love.
Just as we are, may God’s amazing love fill our hearts in the Spirit’s blessing.
May our going in the Way of Christ bring light and peace to our lives. Alleluia!
Yours in Christ
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
In June May’s Ascension story provides the opening for that Great Day of the Church’s Gospel, the Day of Pentecost. The new beginning of Christ’s resurrection is seen in all who follow the Way of Christ, as His Spirit is poured out upon the priesthood of all believers.
What a dramatic beginning to this new Gospel, the pages of our lives. The beginnings of our own faith may too have drama, often they are less defined, begun in some conversation past which offered us hope and acceptance. Among the first of my calls as your new Rector was to our Primary School to lead their morning worship, and as the children filled the assembly hall the music and lyric of Bruno Mars proclaimed Your Amazing! Just the way you are. The Way God purposes for each of us is that we too, each and every one of us, are amazing for we are made of God’s image, Jesus revealed that love assuring those he meets that they are loved simply for whom they are, and revealing to us the Way we may better be whom God purposes us to be, through the Way of God’s love, the Way of Christ.
The Great Sunday of the Church, our own assembly time, counts the fifty days of Pentecost for a time of great blessing, for here we recount the stories of Resurrection Ascension and on the Fiftieth day the story of the Holy Spirit, the gifting of the Church with the abiding presence of our Father God in the name of he who revealed God’s love to the world, Jesus.
I have caught up with many stories as I begin to tread the Way of Christ along with you, and I look forward to hearing many more as we continue along the Way. We face many challenges, there are many trials in life, but by the assurance of Pentecost we are to know we may have strength to endure and more, see amidst this life the blessing of God’s love.
Just as we are, may God’s amazing love fill our hearts in the Spirit’s blessing.
May our going in the Way of Christ bring light and peace to our lives. Alleluia!
Yours in Christ
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Rector's View - May 2013
Dear friends,
In May the Church celebrates the curious story of the Ascension, a story of ending and beginning as our Christ rises to the heavens at the close of the Gospels. And the good news of His risen life begins in the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of the Early Church and the Revelation to John.
As Ascension falls two days after my Installation to the benefice, this seems a fitting episode on which to reflect at this beginning of a new episode of shared Ministry and Ministry amongst the villages of Bansfield Benefice. I hope our thanksgiving for our new beginning together will be an expression of such hopeful enthusiasm as captured through the telling of the day of Ascension.
Each Gospel has its own expression of this Hope filled account. John has Jesus speak enigmatically of ‘Where I am going..’, matching Matthew’s curio ‘I am with you always, to the close of the age.’ Mark has Jesus ‘taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God’, leaving it to Luke to offer us the scene of Ascension ‘While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven’.
Well I’ve not seen any movie show an instructive account of this scene. The Millenium film title ‘Jesus’ has the viewer ascend above the clouds with Jesus looking down on the disciples. But our eye just can’t be convinced and all we picture is a camera carried in a juddering helicopter as its rotor blades batter the caste, trying to keep their eyes open against the wind, rising into the heights. We’re not convinced.
It’s almost like Peter trying to walk over the water to his Christ, or wanting to make three tents to give substance to the Transfiguration, or Mary Magdalene’s holding onto the resurrected form of Christ, to give substance is to change the account.
But our reality is among the substance of our day to day endings and beginnings, how do we convey the revelation of new beginning in this story’s end. Cultures the world over convey hope at the ending of a goodly life by the assurance of being ‘taken up into heaven’. How much more so do we attest to the heavenly realm for one who spoke of His coming from heaven. And here is then the gospel truth, just as for Elijah, for Enoch, just as was spoken of Abraham, Moses and Isaiah, so for Jesus the Christ, Son of the most high God. The Ascension pictures Jesus’ true nature, as angels announced his birth, as God’s Word is heard at his Baptism, as he is joined by Moses and Elijah at his Transfiguration.
Luke’s account of Jesus’ earthly life reveals the promise of His risen life through the Ascension, outward sign of inner spiritual grace. So it is, we who live His risen life, walk this world in hopeful enthusiasm through knowledge of He who is with us to the end of the age.
‘Alleluia, Christ is risen – He is risen indeed Alleluia!’
Yours in Christ
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
In May the Church celebrates the curious story of the Ascension, a story of ending and beginning as our Christ rises to the heavens at the close of the Gospels. And the good news of His risen life begins in the Acts of the Apostles, the Letters of the Early Church and the Revelation to John.
As Ascension falls two days after my Installation to the benefice, this seems a fitting episode on which to reflect at this beginning of a new episode of shared Ministry and Ministry amongst the villages of Bansfield Benefice. I hope our thanksgiving for our new beginning together will be an expression of such hopeful enthusiasm as captured through the telling of the day of Ascension.
Each Gospel has its own expression of this Hope filled account. John has Jesus speak enigmatically of ‘Where I am going..’, matching Matthew’s curio ‘I am with you always, to the close of the age.’ Mark has Jesus ‘taken up into heaven, and sat down at the right hand of God’, leaving it to Luke to offer us the scene of Ascension ‘While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven’.
Well I’ve not seen any movie show an instructive account of this scene. The Millenium film title ‘Jesus’ has the viewer ascend above the clouds with Jesus looking down on the disciples. But our eye just can’t be convinced and all we picture is a camera carried in a juddering helicopter as its rotor blades batter the caste, trying to keep their eyes open against the wind, rising into the heights. We’re not convinced.
It’s almost like Peter trying to walk over the water to his Christ, or wanting to make three tents to give substance to the Transfiguration, or Mary Magdalene’s holding onto the resurrected form of Christ, to give substance is to change the account.
But our reality is among the substance of our day to day endings and beginnings, how do we convey the revelation of new beginning in this story’s end. Cultures the world over convey hope at the ending of a goodly life by the assurance of being ‘taken up into heaven’. How much more so do we attest to the heavenly realm for one who spoke of His coming from heaven. And here is then the gospel truth, just as for Elijah, for Enoch, just as was spoken of Abraham, Moses and Isaiah, so for Jesus the Christ, Son of the most high God. The Ascension pictures Jesus’ true nature, as angels announced his birth, as God’s Word is heard at his Baptism, as he is joined by Moses and Elijah at his Transfiguration.
Luke’s account of Jesus’ earthly life reveals the promise of His risen life through the Ascension, outward sign of inner spiritual grace. So it is, we who live His risen life, walk this world in hopeful enthusiasm through knowledge of He who is with us to the end of the age.
‘Alleluia, Christ is risen – He is risen indeed Alleluia!’
Yours in Christ
Rev'd Brin Singleton
Rector
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Announcement of the appointment of the new Rector for the Bansfield Benefice
The following letter from the Rural Dean was read out this morning at All Saints' Stansfield.
The Diocese is pleased to announce the appointment, by the Bishop (upon the recommendation of the patron and parish representatives, subject to the appropriate statutory checks and references), as Rector to Bansfield Benefice, the Rev. Brin Singleton, currently Rural Dean of Samford Deanery, and Incumbent in the parishes of Capel St Mary with Little and Great Wenham.
terms of my ministry I am a millennium babe, that is to say ordained in 2000 and priested in 2001.
I served my four year curacy in Soham, Ely Diocese and served these past nine years in my first incumbency in Capel St Mary, Little and Great Wenham.
I also served the Samford Deanery as Rural Dean since 2010 and benefited from sharing ministry to our deanery with Elders Readers, Self Supporting Ministers, Parochial Church Officers and Congregations.
My interests include DIY music, bell ringing, camping and the great outdoors.
I, and my family look forward to our new pilgrimage in ministry with you all.
The Benefice and Deanery look forward to welcoming this experienced and highly respected priest into our fellowship.
Rev. Canon Ian Finn (Rural Dean of Clare)
Further information can be found at
http://www.bansfieldbenefice.org.uk/press/singleton.html
and
http://www.bansfieldbenefice.org.uk/benefice/interregnum/
The Diocese is pleased to announce the appointment, by the Bishop (upon the recommendation of the patron and parish representatives, subject to the appropriate statutory checks and references), as Rector to Bansfield Benefice, the Rev. Brin Singleton, currently Rural Dean of Samford Deanery, and Incumbent in the parishes of Capel St Mary with Little and Great Wenham.
Brin writes:
I am very much looking forward to joining Bansfield benefice. In 2013 Marion and I will be celebrating 30 years of marriage, we have three children, our daughter is married and living in Bath, our eldest son is setting up his own home in Ipswich, and our youngest son having special needs will join us along with my mother at Wickhambrook vicarage, as well our household of dogs and cats. Interms of my ministry I am a millennium babe, that is to say ordained in 2000 and priested in 2001.
I served my four year curacy in Soham, Ely Diocese and served these past nine years in my first incumbency in Capel St Mary, Little and Great Wenham.
I also served the Samford Deanery as Rural Dean since 2010 and benefited from sharing ministry to our deanery with Elders Readers, Self Supporting Ministers, Parochial Church Officers and Congregations.
My interests include DIY music, bell ringing, camping and the great outdoors.
I, and my family look forward to our new pilgrimage in ministry with you all.
The Rural Dean writes
A date for Licensing and Induction will be set by the Bishop and Archdeacon, and as soon as this is known it will be announced.The Benefice and Deanery look forward to welcoming this experienced and highly respected priest into our fellowship.
Rev. Canon Ian Finn (Rural Dean of Clare)
Further information can be found at
http://www.bansfieldbenefice.org.uk/press/singleton.html
and
http://www.bansfieldbenefice.org.uk/benefice/interregnum/
Saturday, January 19, 2013
Christingle Service for the Children's Society
Please do come and join us for our annual Benefice CHRISTINGLE SERVICE with a collection for the Children’s Society.
Bring yourselves, children and grandchildren. There will be lots of fun both with making the christingles from oranges, candles, dried fruit and sweets as well as music, activities and songs.
Led by the Elevenses from St Mary's church Haverhill with Father Ian Finn.
Do come and enjoy making your Christingle and singing songs.
If you have a collection box, please bring it to the service.
See you on Sunday 27th at 3pm.
Bring yourselves, children and grandchildren. There will be lots of fun both with making the christingles from oranges, candles, dried fruit and sweets as well as music, activities and songs.
When and Where...
On Sunday 27th January at 3pm. All Saints Church, WickhambrookLed by the Elevenses from St Mary's church Haverhill with Father Ian Finn.
Do come and enjoy making your Christingle and singing songs.
If you have a collection box, please bring it to the service.
See you on Sunday 27th at 3pm.
Sunday, December 9, 2012
Toy Service - Thank you
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