Lowgate Light

St Mary the Virgin

Lowgate Light

Issue 2

Designed by Marcel Craven , In-house artist

Dear Friends, The New Year is now well established; reviewing the past year teaches us where there are still ‘areas for improvement’ whilst the challenges for 2016 are gradually revealing themselves.

Continuing as the ‘City’s Cloister’ we have been able to maintain our round of worship, offer hospitality and roll up the monastic sleeves. There were some tremendous highlights over the Advent and Christmas period; Gillshill Primary School came in force, I lost count of the number of children and teachers and parents enjoyed the two carol services; Community Voices and Project Strings gave us two wonderful concerts; the Soup and Silence lunchtimes were also well appreciated. Of particular joy was the outpouring of generosity on Christmas Eve as a buffet was spread for our homeless friends. Shoe boxes of gifts appeared, given out and received with great joy and thankfulness. The church could hardly contain the generosity. Thank you to all who gave your time and energy to those projects and our peoples.

The New Year will see us developing and building on what we have started in all areas of the cloister. Certainly our worship will be rich and meaningful as we progress through Lent and Easter. Our most serious development on the horizon is the official start of our restoration campaign. As we adapt and upgrade our building, the more we can pray, the more hospitable we can be and the more we can encourage community creativity through the arts. Becoming a ‘Friend’ remains the best way of helping us and staying informed; also ‘follow us on Facebook’ as they say!

Please browse this magazine and see what is happening and as always our thanks goes to Nicky Brockwell for her energy and commitment for producing it.

From us all have a good Lent and a Blessed Easter time. Fr. Paul

A Reflection on St Martin’, as a person and as a place and as

an idea, comes to mind very much this year and at this very special time. It is our Christian year page turn. Time, past and future converges in this present. St Martin opens us up to those parcels of creation we call time.

As a person; let us remind ourselves of the famous story of this fourth century saint.

He ended his life in Tours, in present day France, in the year 397 AD. He had become renowned as a miracle worker; he was a respected Bishop, but he was also a monk and hermit. Celtic Christianity came to us from Palestine through his ministry, Tours being on the major medieval trade routes.

He began his Christian life as a definite ‘convert’. He was receiving some mild Christian education as he was living the life of an active soldier; a trained killer. Then our familiar story begins. One very cold snowy day in Amiens, Martin was on patrol on the streets of Amiens. He saw a beggar, a shivering beggar.

Without another thought Martin took off his luxurious cloak, cut it into two equal pieces and gave half to the beggar.

That night Martin had a dream. Jesus came to him wearing his full cloak with these words, ‘Just learning the faith, yet Martin has clothed me’. The next day the young soldier presented himself for baptism, and a life time of miracles began.

The idea is here. Martin was converted by giving to the least one of all people, that one who is the Christ.

As a place, we go to Trafalgar Square, an iconic place of revolution and protest, political, social and spiritual. The church of St Martin, once in the fields, lies there quietly.

The BBC appeal this Christmas has been from there and is for those who need help because they have had to become the actual ‘beggars’ today.

Their main theme was the paying attention to another, especially the one we could so easily pass by, for whatever reason. Martin, the person, the anxious soldier, paid attention to the beggar. Both lives were changed. Stories from the church, the place, of St. Martin’s are so similar. These take us to the idea of St Martin.

It goes like this;

“someone pays attention to a beggar, both are helped; each leads the other to Christ; the beggar goes on to pay attention to more beggars; the helper is encouraged and carries on. Maybe he or she becomes, like Martin, both a bishop and more importantly a monk! It all begins with the paying attention to those we see as the most offensive outcasts, the detritus of our sanitised society.”

Midnight Mass Person, place, idea: we here at St Mary’s have the people, the beggars and the helpers, we have the place, we have the idea.

In very real fact we are well advanced in our understanding of this, putting this idea into practice. We can offer people the opportunity to learn compassionate generosity. Like Martin, we can have a school, the pupils, the discipuloi , disciples. Here, in this place, we offer a scholarship in practical Christianity The presence of the poorest here has brought forth a chaotic outpouring of creative generosity. The outpouring of generosity is so great this that building cannot hold the chaotic goodness. All can be converted.

All of us, especially this night can review our outlook; our way of seeing and doing things; the way we treat others, especially those we walk past because they appal us! How do we, like St Francis embrace the leper, or like St Martin give away half of what keeps us warm? We can even be converted within our Christianity, we can see more, attend to more, and do more.

We celebrate the reality of God being made flesh: that is why He is the bundle of flesh in the shop doorway.

So the world would be a so much better a place if we all engaged with the beggar at the door and, the with perhaps the poorest of all, when before God, the beggar that is our self.

We speak of mission; our entire mission,

comes down to, ‘one beggar showing another beggar where to find bread’.

Bet-le-hem, Bethlehem literally means, ‘the house of bread’, the place where all beggars can be fed by the bread of Christ and be wrapped in the whole cloak of Christ O come, let us adore Him. Amen.

Prayers

In our prayers today we hold; all Christian people as they labour in

God’s vineyard in their own way and for whatever length of time; Pope Francis, the Orthodox Patriarchs, leaders of the Free Churches, Archbishops Sentamu and Justin and Bishop Alison; the peoples of the world in the most extreme and desperate places of deprivation and terror; world leaders to be wise; our City and for its many `Cultures’; our schools and all places of learning; the work and future of our parish as we seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit; all those we know who are suffering physically or emotionally; those in care and hospital; our hospital chaplains and all others dedicated to caring for them; those closest to us, and we pray for eternal rest for the departed †. Amen

Dairy Dates 30 Jan – Charles, King and Martyr, 1649 02 Feb – Candlemas – 12.30 Holy Communion 07 Feb – Holy Baptism of George Thomas Woodwood 10 Feb – Ash Wednesday – 7.00pm Service of Ashes 18 Feb – Restoration Meeting – 10.00am St. Mary’s 28 Feb – PCC meeting immediately after the 11.00am service 09-12 Mar – Visit from the Archbishop of York 20 Mar – Palm Sunday 24 Mar – Maundy Thursday 25 Mar – Good Friday 27 Mar – Easter Day 08 April – Violin Solo Recital 10 April – AGM immediately after the 11.00am service

aint Paul

of S

The Starving

Soldier

I

It t was raining fast and it was dark. The streets were almost deserted, suddenly a voice at my elbow said, “I am not fit for work, and eaten nothing today.”

I looked at the speaker, he was a strongly buit man, but had lost both arms in amputation; he was evidently a discharged soldier. He was pale too, from recent sickness or scanty food. He had an old thread coat.

My first impulse was to give him something, but my coat was buttoned tightly. I could not easily unbutton it and continued to hold my umberella, and book;and to crown it all, the street car, I hsd been waiting for had arrived.

“I haven’t anything today” I said, turning away from the man and beckoning the driver. I heard a sigh as I turned, I was on the point of reconsidering my decision, but I reflected, that if I missed my car, I would have to wait another ten minutes on the road, “Besides I said to my self, some one else will be sure to give him sonmething.” But my heart woken me when on looking at the man, I saw him go sadly down the street with a bent head. Once I thought of stopping the car, after overtaking the man and giving him some money.

But while I hesitated, the car passed the corner and he was out sight. It was too late.

I did not eat dinner that day, with this unusual appetite. I could not get the man’s face out of my mind. At the time the food seemed to choke me.

What if he was really starving and no one would help him.

Althrough the evening the man’s look haunted me. In vain my daughter seeing me abstracted sung to cheer me up.

I even dreamed of the man. If I had known where to find him I would have gone the next day to satisfy my concience, and to assure he had received assistance.

But the impression gradually wore off. There is so much suffering now in great cities, that almost everyone had become hardened to it.

I persuaded myself finally the man had been helped by others.

“There are so many societies to help soldiers,” I said, it was uncomfortable to think otherwise.

One morning, four days after, my wife was reading the paper, when she suddenly laid it down and said, “How shocking.”

I do not know how it was, but I felt a soldiers chill, I thought imstantly of the mans face. But I said carelessley, as I cracked the shell of my egg, “What is it my dear?”

“Oh such a horrible story. A dishcharged soldier, his wife and two children, dying of starvation. The wife has died and one of the children are not expected to live. None of them have had anything to eat for four days. They were found in an old out-house.

The man is said to have lost both arms in the war.”

My hand trembled so much and long before my wife finished. I had been compelled to lay down my egg. She was looking at the paper and did not see me.

I had no appetite after that. I hurrid into the city for I was sure this was the man who petition I had rejected.

I went straight to see him. I had the newspaper im my pocket and it directed me to the miserable out-house where the sufferers had been found.

Quite s crowed had collected outside, but a policeman at the door permitted no one to go in. He knew me, however, on expressing my wish, allowed me to enter.

A sheet furnished by some poor neighbour, was spread over a waxen face in the corner, a little girl was sobbing beside it, A man bowed with grief sat at the foot. As the sound of my footsteps he looked up, it was the man I had repelled at the corner of the street.

Since that day I have never refused at least to give bread to those who so plainly need it, as the poor soldier did. And in spite of that is wisely said about “the plauge of beggars” who make a trade of it, I think it’s better to give to many who are unworthy, than refuse he that is really in need; and better still to obey the Holy Sprit, moving us to every gentle charity, than to refuse the divine direction, and mourn at last over a lost opportunity where no regrets can ever bring on to us again.

A story written in St Mary’s -1800

BEGGARS DOOR The poor queued outside the beggars door, St Mary was the only Chiurch in Hull that gave bread and soup to the poor

A bread ticket was issued to the poor every Sunday at 11-00

The Bread Chamber was full every Suday. and the Rev John Scott would distributed the bread out after the people of Hull had kindly contibuted.

Did You Know?

Sir John Scott open a soup kichen in the 1800’s to cater for the poor. It was the first Soup Kitchn in Hull and was situated at St Marys Church

Charles Perry Scott was Born in St Marys.

Hull F.C was formed from A boys club , ran By St Marys

St Mary’s is a grade 11 building and over seven hundred year old John Scott wrote a book called Luther the Lutheran Revolution The book is selling on amazon today

The Tombs of the John Scott are inside St Marys

From Hull To China Charles Perry Scott was born in the par-

ish of St. Mary’s, Hull, on June 27, 1847; his father was the second John Scott to be vicar, his brother, the third vicar; his mother was Amelia Cooper, daughter of Samuel Cooper, Esq., of Tranby Lodge, near Hessle, his godfather being Dr. Charles Perry, Bishop of Melbourne, who had married his mother’s sister.

The following is a brother’s account of Charles: “This brother was of a very gentle and sweet disposition, goodly to look upon, and one who gained and retained the affection of many. His was one of the sensitive and conscientious natures, capable of enduring considerable suffering.

Charles’ father died, the people of Hull raised a large sum of money as a testimonial to my father’s memory. Commenting upon this bit of family life, I may say here, once for all, that all through his life, He was determined to live for China, and to die in China.

Charles left Hull to be a missionary in China, Rev John Scott, and the people from Hull contributed to The North China Mission Association.--Indispensable aid was given to Charles, first by the S. Peter’s Missionary Guild, then by the growing North China Mission Association, one of the most vigorous

of the missionary associations at home.

It was well indeed that it should be so, since the S.P.G. grant for North China for years was very small. No name stands out more prominently in this Association than Charles’ eldest brother, John, vicar of St. Mary’s, Hull.

In 1880, Charles Perry Scott became the Bishop of North China. He had designed and erected a Cathedral from the funds.

He had incorporated western methods of construction as much as possible, form with Chinese decoration

. It represented an offer by Christian foundation on which was blessed with the best for China’s lives. It was built, grafted and was equipped with the Prayer Book. Scott showed the Chinese the best English he knew and the Cathedral was admired by visitors from missions all over China. Many of his friends contributed funds to the chapel he designed at Ching Teh, the large boys boarding school.

The school taught English, trained doctors and nurses, teachers, gave higher education studies, medical work and Christian Worship All who knew Scott commented on his great patience, humility and gentleness. He was good at seeing both sides of a question. It was these gifts rather than more strikingly ones which enabled him and Bishop Graves, help to bring together the various Anglican Missions. He was the first chairman of its General Synod and more than anyone else it’s “Father.” In the view of England, “He had an amazing tolerance.”

With the help of St Mary’s and the people of Hull, China had the best equipped School that changed lives

CANDLE MASS Today is a bit of a ‘post-code lottery’- depending on where you live determines what you celebrate; also today depends on whether you are pagan or Christian- for the celebration of today is a co-mixture of them both.

If you happen to be in the USA: then it’s ‘Groundhog Day’.

Should a ground hog emerge from its burrow on this day, and its cloudy, then the groundhog will stay out and winter will soon be over.

If the sun shines and it can see its shadow, and is frightened and scuttles back inside the burrow, then there are six more weeks of winter!!!

the divinely promised salvation: that was enough for him, and, ‘now’, he says, ‘lettest thou thy servant depart in peace’.

This is a welcoming of death, and for our meditations, it completes the paradox of death inherent in life.

There is, though, much more symbolism here.

It is a scene depicted over again by Rembrandt in his paintings and drawings: I quote an art critic, “Rembrandt was fascinated by the interplay of intimacy and vastness, the childhood and old age, life’s dawn and life’s evening, light and dark”.

In terms of the Church, if you are of the The artist poses two question for us: will eastern tradition, the emphasis from our the tiny light grow in the darkness and fiGospel is on ‘The Presentation’ of Christ nally overcome it, or is it that the darkness and ‘The Meeting’ (hypapante), while we is about to close down the light, and snuff westerners look more at the ‘Purification of out what it has cost so much to bring to the Blessed Virgin’, and the lighting and the birth? blessing of the candles, this is ‘Candlemas’.

This is a welcoming of death, and for our Four events, all present in the gospel of tomeditations, it completes the paradox of day, all intermingled. One other common death inherent in life. commemoration is that today is forty days There is, though, much more symbolism after Christmas, and for the astrologers, it is here. a cross-quarter day between the solstice and It is a scene depicted over again by Remthe equinox, befitting of the Pagan festival of brandt in his paintings and drawings: I Imbolc. quote an art critic, So, the presentation of Christ in the Temple “Rembrandt was fascinated by the interplay is that which is required by the Law of Moses. of intimacy and vastness, the childhood At this presentation there is a monumental and old age, life’s dawn and life’s evening, meeting. It is where Jesus meets the temple light and dark”. holy man, Simeon, and the temple prophetThe artist poses two question for us: will ess, Anna. the tiny light grow in the darkness and At the presentation the holy man has seen finally overcome it, or is it that the dark-

ness is about to close down the light, and snuff out what it has cost so much to bring to birth?

Somewhere in this meeting up event, as the Eastern Church emphasises, there is a strange meeting of the old and new covenant, between Christmas and Lent, light and dark the nativity and the cross.

Today, though, we’re blessing candles-how does that fit with everything else? Well here we take in some paganism and are aware of the post-code!

So were you to be in Rome two thousand years ago, you might be processing around the city with a candle-this was a festival of lights to shut out the winter and to protect from evil.

From the earliest times, initially to run in parallel, and then to supercede this practice, was the Christian corrective- in honour of the Virgin and the event of the Presentation, the words of Simeon prevailed, and candles were lit as symbolic of the Christ, and each one who carried a candle became a ‘christopher’-a christ-bearer.

Simeon recognised, ‘the light to lighten the Gentiles’.

Mary supercedes now any pagan goddesses. She comes to the temple to undergo ritual purification after childbirth. She did this purely to fulfil the requirements of the Mosaic Law as outlined in the Book of Leviticus-she did not need purifying. She did though, get a glimpse of her destiny, again from the holy man Simeon. He bluntly says to Mary, ‘A sword will pierce your own soul too’.

So this is another annunciation; another time for Mary to ponder all these things in heart. The cross now hangs over the Holy Family and foresees another presentation of our Lord to Pilate and the crucifying crowds

of Jerusalem.

Candlemas carries both a pain and joy. The Christmas festivities are now definitely over; the tree is down, the crib put away. We light our candles against the darkness, and then we blow them out; it is as if we snuff out the life of the infant Jesus. Today is about ‘crib to cross’.

Lent and ashes are not far away when we remember, ‘dust you are and to dust you shall return’.

So we journey onwards into, as it were, a time of darkness.

Our liturgy, though, also reflects the realities of our humanity, where we stumble with a half-light, moving among the shadows, entering a cloud of unknowing, until the day of Resurection.

In nature of course, today marks a turning of the year. The days are becoming longer and the snowdrops, also known a Mary’s Tapers or Candlemas Bells, are appearing. The worst of the winter hibernation, we hope, is over, giving way to the buds of Spring. The sap, as they say, is rising.

Dear Friends Our Christian year is now on the turn and is rapidly falling into Easter. We tip over the edge on this weekend with this Septuagesima Sunday. This season lasts until Shrove Tuesday. It is a season of ‘voluntary’ penance before the total and Great Fast of Lent. It is a period marked by being seventy days from Easter. Our colour in church is purple, (not Arctic blue!), a sign of penitence, but it is voluntary! It is a season of preparing to prepare and then it is up to each of us to choose what we might make of it. It is a countdown season through Sexagesima to Quinquagesima and even Quadragesima, six, five, and four. Then we have the four weeks of Lent.

There is a reason behind all that we do in the church cycle and each act relates to our shared human condition. The opportunity is there for each of us to engage in this ancient and wise round of exploration of our spiritual selves. The shared spirituality at St Mary’s is like a great apple tree and each of us can pick an apple, (not forbidden), hopefully one that is big enough for others to bite on. Paul

Become a Friend of St Marys

Silence Silence often provokes anxiety. In our

constantly noisy and distracted times, silence is unfamiliar and uncomfortable.

Our approach to silence is usually instinctive – we walk into a silent space which to some extent is `ours’, and we banish the silence without even thinking – the TV or radio goes on, we ring a friend, we put on some music or we create noise and distraction in some other way.

If we explore this a little further, we may find that at the root of this instinctive banishing of silence, there are a variety of reasons. The most basic is that we may simply not be used to it, and the unfamiliar is always a little worrying to us.

What is vital is that we do not banish outer noise only to create the far greater noise of anxiety in our minds. We need to learn to live with this silence gently and not worry if we cannot stand too much of it at any given time.

What is important is that the silence we create, becomes a place where we can think and feel in safety. It is not a place where we suddenly and brutally investigate all the fears and memories that we are currently avoiding.

Silence walking the dog, wandering around the garden, walking back from the bus when not pushed for time, are all times when you can grow familiar with silence. Silence during a thorough workout at the gym is not `silent’.

Once you have chosen to allow silence in and around you, begin to become aware. We are often profoundly unaware of life around us because we are so absorbed in our agenda for that moment. We rush past people and created beauty, promising to have more time later – and never quite find that time.

Converting this into very simple, but extraordinarily important prayer is when you can find yourself talking to God about your reflections, thoughts, feelings and memories.

Then taking the courage to stop talking in the silence and see what comes up – in other words listen to both your own inner wisdom and the promptings of God. If you can allow yourself to call this prayer (after all what is prayer but `communication’ with God at its widest level), and you will find that your personal relationship with God deepens.

Take these times, poor crumbs of minutes though they be, and give yourself to God in them. You will not be able to feel prayerful in them, but that is beside the point. You pray for God’s sake, you are there for Him to look on you, to love you, to take His holy pleasure in you. What can it matter whether you feel any of this or get any comfort from it? We should be misers in prayer, scraping up these flinders of time and holding them out trustfully to the Father. But we should also watch out for the longer stretches, To begin, it may be no bad idea to start which we may be missing because we do not talking to God about silence – what it does to you and how you feel about it – and if you want to see them. do it while walking gently, you will find it Many things are pleasant and profitable – much easier, not to get oppressed or overly television programs, books, conversation – concerned about `getting it right’. may have to be sacrificed at times. But you will make this and any other sacrifice if you There is a tendency today for people to say, hunger and thirst for God to possess you, with greater or less distress, that they have no time for prayer. What they mean is, they and this is my whole point. There is time do not have a peaceful hour, or two peaceful enough for what matters supremely to us, and there always will be. half hours, or even three peaceful twenty minutes. If that is the day God has given them, then He awaits their praying hearts under precisely these conditions.

You will also notice that the silence becomes a rich and very absorbing place – feeding you in all sorts of ways, helping you live in the present rather than just `through’ the present, and bringing you moments of joy and wonder that you might otherwise have missed. So often the small insignificant things – a random thought, the light on a flower, a chance encounter, a smile exchanged – become small and enriching.

They are testing conditions, surely, but never impossible. Most of us can manage a ten-minute silence. It may have to be in the lavatory, or the bath, or the car, or standing at the station, or when the baby’s just gone to sleep. But for most people it is possible.

If you can spend it sitting quietly, I rejoice for you. But this concentrated time when you try to put aside all else and simply be there for God is the proof, as it were, of your desire to pray

Restoration News

g

etting folk together is always difficult. This is why the next meeting will be on Thursday 18th February at 10.00am. This will be the regrouping of our own PCC sub-group with the wider group of ‘experts’ whom we hope will join us in whatever ways, to guide and resource us further. Several of the ‘good and great’ have agreed to come already. It will be from then on, hopefully with the formation of working groups, that we begin the process in earnest. 2015, `our year to prepare’ has rightly gestated into 2016, ‘Our Year for Action’.

One new thing, we have now had a second opinion inspection of the organ by John Scott Whitely; we wait for his report.

The Easter Process The season of Lent begins with Shrove Tuesday. Traditionally this is where we empty our larders, especially of eggs and butter and then go to the Priest and empty ourselves of sin in the act of Confession.

Ash Wednesday is when we are reminded of our frailty and mortality; “From dust ye were made from dust ye shall return” The faithful believer will come and have ashes signed on the forehead in the sign of the cross.

The season of Lent is a replica of the forty days which Our Lord spent in the wilderness, facing up to his own frailty.

Palm Sunday remembers Jesus’ final entry into the holy city of Jerusalem. Some believed him to be the warrior king to save them from Roman occupation; they spread palm leaves under his feet. The truth is he came to his last days, enduring great torture and a final crucifixion.

Good Friday recalls his pain and death which learn to cohabit. is a symbol of all our suffering.

Easter Sunday celebrates the mystery of a resurrection and serves to reassure us that out of life’s ashes there is a great goodness that may be born ‘A hard time we had of it… were we witnessing a birth or a death?’

The following true story, in the tradition of The Journey of the Magi, by T.S.Eliot. storytellers, is offered to you as a real example of the Easter Process; the word Triduum means ‘The Three Days’, namely the three days of Easter, where pain mutates into joy and

A Triduum

February is the shortest month, but this

one was getting longer and longer as more and more are being wrapped in the streets.

They come to us when there is nowhere else to go, but we have nothing much to offer.

I had just come in after a freezing time outside Billy’s on the ‘Dilly’. The usual crowd was there, a few hot chestnuts were left. Chalkie, our friendly copper was doing tricks with the amphetamines, confiscating for nothing and selling for a lot. There were some complaints about some bad ‘Chinese H’, and a sharing of abscesses with the chestnuts.

It was cold in the crypt, and tiled walls seemed to have more blood splashes on them, but then it was dark and you couldn’t see them. We had some blankets and some tea.

‘Centrepoint’ had no more beds, so the four or five cuddled up with us and sleeplessly had to wait for morning. Jamey just wouldn’t sit down, eyes wide with ‘speed’, just pacing and muttering. No-one paid much notice of him.

Some trouble on the steps got me out of my drowse. It was Anna and Rob, arguing as always. Again, no-one took much notice, but they seemed more agitated than ever. They shuffled over to me and Anna showed me her gear and, almost convulsing in withdrawal, begged me to fix her. Rob paced around, rather like a pregnant father. He was very impatient, impatient with me because I was dithering, as far as he was concerned.

He didn’t know that I was struggling with the ‘ethics of the situation’! My sin there was to let that particular struggle show. I lived with them, lived their real struggles. I lived the life of the addict but without the chemical buffers. Even my shoulder length hair was matted like theirs. So how was it that I couldn’t ease Anna’s pain?

TABLE TOP SALES

Looking for a good book to read, or a film to watch or relax to some music?

St Mary’s has a table top full of books,films and more. People have kindly donated to help our causes and that’s before helping our beautiful church.

Come in and see what unique gifts we have. What people give away is another persons tresure. You never know what you might find!

St Mary the Virgin Church, Lowgate, Hull www.stmaryslowgate.org.uk friendsofstmaryslowgate@gmail.com follow us on St. Mary’s facebook