Monthly Guest Column for Southport Visiter
February 2012
My early morning routine starts with the alarm going off at 6.48am. Immediately, I spring out of bed, rush to the bedroom window, open the curtains and greet the new day with a resounding 'Good morning world'.
Now the truth...... The radio does wake me before seven. I doze through the headlines, grope for my specs and then stumble to the bathroom, hoping that the face in the mirror still bears some resemblance to the person who looked out at me the night before.
Fairly common rituals I suspect, especially on dark winter mornings. But from 8am my schedule shifts in a direction shared by relatively few early risers. I go into my church, light two candles and then ring the church bell eighteen times, three bursts of three and then nine in succession.
I ring carefully and deliberately - don't want anything too frantic or noisy for the neighbours as they butter their toast - but loud enough for local people to know that something is going on at Trinity.
I've done this in all my parishes but it hasn't always been appreciated. In one place the bells were rung to mark my first anniversary of arrival. Shortly before the special service began to mark the occasion, I was informed that a close neighbour wished to speak to me urgently. I went round, secretly anticipating congratulations, but in a fairly uncompromising way (you don't need to know his exact language) I was informed that if the ringing didn't stop immediately he would break every window in the church.
Eventually we became good friends. The windows remained intact and I was able to help him when he escaped from a special care hospital unit in his wheelchair. Apprehended on the Prescot Road as I recall, doing a fairly brisk speed and keen to get home.
In the centre of Hull, some years later, I tolled the bell at midnight each New Year's Eve before going into the adjacent pub where exceedingly merry parishioners confided their hopes and fears or encouraged me to stand on a table and sing for their pleasure.
Why do I continue to ring the bell each morning and, whenever I can, at 7pm or later each evening?
The Church of England requires its clergy to say morning and evening prayer each day. It stipulates that 'the minister of the parish shall pray for the corporate life of the parish and that public notice shall be given by tolling the bell' when prayers are about to be said.
Bells are rung for all sorts of occasions - in times of national emergency, the end of hostilities, the marking of anniversaries and achievements, great and small. They ring to celebrate a birth, to greet a bride, to signify the entrance of a coffin in church at journey's end. But every day in parishes, the bell is tolled to declare that the local church is doing its job: praying for its people, holding their concerns in its heart and remembering the sick, the lonely and the sad.
Often we can feel overlooked, isolated and alone. The sound of a bell with its steady, insistent ring conveys a different and more hopeful story. As each morning begins, the church embraces its community in prayer, brings its concerns before the altar of God and asks for wisdom and strength to meet human need in its many forms.
As the day ends, the bell tolls again, this time as a summing up of work done or left undone and a prayer for the peace and safekeeping of a community as night falls.
It rings to affirm important truths: that a locality matters to God and that no one should be forgotten.
Rod Garner
January 2012
The presenting facts are pretty stark: 2012 is going to be a hard road for many people with little by way of comfort or joy.
There will be a Royal Jubilee and the razzmatazz of the London Olympics to distract us for a while but the gloom and drizzle of a
deep economic recession will continue. Pundits talk of a reprise of the 1930s or even the Dark Ages that followed the fall of the
Roman Empire in the early fifth century.
From where I stand I can't quite see the new horsemen of the apocalypse on the horizon but I do know as a pastor and community organiser that there is a lot more pain to come. What are we to do? Taking the long view is a good and tested option. We have been here before and survived. 'Keep calm and carry on' - the slogan we've borrowed from the forties and put on mugs and tea towels is both an invitation to embrace the spirit of the Blitz and a reminder that our own times are not uniquely awful.
Even further back we can find the renowned diarist Samuel Pepys recording
his last journal entry for 1666 - the catastrophic year of the Great Fire of London. He writes:
"Public matters in a most sad
condition...nobody is encouraged to trade... employees are discouraged for want of pay and all sober men are fearful of the ruin
of the whole kingdom."
A familiar ring don't you think? Pepys morose entry ends on a lighter note: we read that his own health is
good and he is now sufficiently established to entertain dinner guests on a fine collection of silver plates!
Alongside a sense of perspective there are other things that can help us cope. Gratitude for what we already have and own is the best start to a New Year. Breathing and the ability to put one foot forward in front of the other are powerful reasons to be thankful. A warm bed, food on the table and the dependability of friends should also figure prominently on our check list. And the most important realisation of all, that we are alive and tolerably well in this moment, as distinct from the alternatives, is another occasion for still more thanks.
A time of pestilence can be an inspiring teacher. It reminds us of our common humanity, our duty to others who are not making it and our obligation, as the Bible puts it, to bear their burdens as well as our own. And when there is so much relentless talk of decline, calamity and endings, it's more important than ever to remember that tomorrow and each succeeding day will witness new beginnings. In the streets and roads where we live, a child will be born bringing new hope in keeping with the promise of the Christ child of Bethlehem. A sparkling engagement ring will be slipped on the finger of an excited future bride. Someone will decide to behave differently and mean it. Another will start a fresh project, risk a new relationship or forge a commercial venture. A hospital patient will take hold of her life again because the prognosis she could hardly bare to hear is better, much better than anticipated.
In quiet corners under the radar of the media, small groups inspired by a sense of decency or faith will come together to plan, work and sometimes pray for a better future for their communities. They know that the days are lengthening now and there is a light that never goes out.
Rod Garner
SUNDAYS
8.30am Holy Communion
10.15am Parish Communion (First Sundays in month are usually a Family Communion with children taking part)
10.15am Sunday School
(For 3 year olds upwards - on all except first Sundays and school holidays)
6.30pm Evening Prayer
WEEKDAYS
11.30am Tuesdays
Holy Communion
7.15pm Wednesdays
Choral Evensong
7.15pm 1st Friday in month
Book of Common Prayer Communion
OTHER SERVICES
(e.g for Saints Days): as announced
Practising members of other Christian denominations are invited to receive Holy Communion.
If you are not confirmed but would like to receive a blessing please come forward with other communicants and place your hands below the altar rail.
We hope you will join us for refreshments in the Parish Centre after the Service