Message from Canon Kristian

Dear brothers and sisters

As schools have broken up and the holiday period begins, there is a natural lull in parish life in terms of meetings and activities. However, the day-to-day business of the parish continues, with the celebration of Holy Mass and the other Sacraments and the pastoral care of the sick, the elderly and anyone who is in particular need. This year, too, there will be on-going preparations throughout August for the return to our own church in Tiverton which is planned to take place at the end of September, when the Bishop will come to dedicate the church and consecrate the altar.

The daily rhythm of parish prayer also encompasses the remembrance and celebration of the Saints, those who have lived the Christian life to its fullest and with the greatest integrity. Week-by-week these Saints are listed in the Parish Diary on the back of the Newsletter. I wonder how many of us really take note of them and maybe even do some research about who they were (something which is so easy these days in the age of Google search!). You may find it of interest to know that the “Sanctoral Cycle”, as it is technically called, has three levels – the universal, the national and the diocesan. That is, there are some Saints who are commemorated and celebrated throughout the whole Church worldwide (eg the Apostles such as St James today, on 25 July), some which have special significance for a particular country (eg the Martyrs of England and Wales on 4 May), and some which are related to the area of a particular diocese. Strangely, it is those who are most local that are those which are less well-known and often ignored. On Thursday of this week, for example, in our diocese will celebrated that Feast Day of St Germanus of Auxerre. Isn’t Auxerre in present day France, I hear you say, so what has he to do with the Diocese of Plymouth?! The clue is in his name – you may have heard of the village of St German’s in Cornwall!

Our Diocesan Ordo (the book will tells us what Mass and Divine Office are celebrated each day of the year) gives us following summary of his life: Saint Germanus lived in the fourth and fifth centuries, and became Bishop of Auxerre, in France. He was sent to Britain by Pope St Celestine, together with the Bishop of Troyes, St Lupus, to preach against the Pelagian heresy. Pelagius was a British monk, whose teachings became popular here in the fifth century – he said that human beings could do without God’s grace, and that we could achieve goodness and holiness by our own efforts. He also denied the doctrine of Original Sin. On one of his visits to Britain, Germanus built a church at the place that now bears his name, St Germans in Cornwall. A later structure built in 936 became the Episcopal see of Cornwall, and there was a succession of Bishops of St Germans until in 1043, the see was moved to Crediton.

That summary is full of interesting historical facts and personages, and we could draw not a little spiritual benefit from some personal research into them. For example, although St Germanus lived a very long time ago, the heresy he came to Britain to combat (Pelagianism – interesting, the only Christian heresy native to our country, although it is doubtful whether Pelagius himself was actually a Pelagian!), is still alive and well all these centuries later. How many of our contemporaries believe they can get along just fine without any help from God? And, indeed, how many of us believers, perhaps even subconsciously, think that we are quite able to achieve goodness and holiness by our own efforts alone, if we just put our backs into it a bit more?! There appears to be something ingrained in the British psyche in particular which sits uneasily with being dependent on others, that focusses on self-help (just think of the mountain of books that have been written on this subject and which are to be found in the “spirituality and religion” sections of bookshops and libraries) and emphasizes a rugged individualism – “I can do it myself if I try harder!” Why this attitude becomes a Christian heresy is because we and the creation as a whole are dependent upon the grace of God. It is the grace of God which has priority in everything we do (“In Him we live and move and have our being”, Acts 17:28). We are saved by grace, not by what we do. What we do, who we are, how we live flows from that saving grace. It is what the great Father of the Church, St Augustine of Hippo, termed “prevenient” grace, ie even before we choose to do a good action, the grace of God is present enabling us to make that choice! So, yes, we have the personal and communal responsibility to respond to the action of grace within us and to live lives which are faithful to the Gospel and strive towards holiness (St James leaves us in absolutely no doubt that “faith without works is dead” -James 2:26), but we do this by acknowledging that, as creatures, we are dependent on our Creator and that we are given the unearned gift of new life through the self-giving Sacrifice of Christ, enabling us to live in the freedom of the children of God.  As St Paul says: “For freedom Christ has set us free” (Galatians 5:1) – freedom, too, from the prison of self-sufficiency and the slavery of trying to save oneself. The Saints, even those who lived long ago, always have something to teach us and they will walk with us on our own spiritual journey if we ask them in prayer to accompany us.

Along with the Newsletter this week, I attach Monika Manser’s guide to a prayerful reading of the Sunday Gospel, together with the flyers for the Peace Vigil and the Day of Safeguarding Training which I attach to last weekend’s Newsletter.

Please keep in your prayers those in our parish who are very sick at the moment, especially Christine Pickford, and all those in the community who are travelling to holiday places or to visit family and all those who will be holidaying in our own area.

God bless you.

Canon Kristian