ST. JOHN’S news

    Easter 2oo6

 

Of course all over the world all Christians celebrate Easter with great devotion and faith, but Easter at St. John’s is particularly wonderful in a special sense. The church this year in the midst of its renovations, was beautiful with lovely flowers and filled with the light of the sun flowing in and illumining  every corner, it was rather like a parable of its own of the Easter morning light at the dark tomb. There was colour and warmth, with the choir, organ and people ringing out the praises of the risen Lord. It has been said, by a previous bishop, that the singing at St. John’s is the most stirring of the churches along the Riviera, and Easter morning demonstrated this! People crowded into the church filling every space, and there was a tremendous sense of joy and love, as we greeted one another with the Easter Peace. But clearly at the very centre and the focus point of all this was the spiritual awareness of the presence of our Lord in our midst. It was a true affirmation of our faith, and who we are at St. John’s that when we all cried out ‘Alleluia Christ is risen! He is risen indeed alleluia!” we knew it, Christ was and is with us.

 

Now I recount all this, not only because I consider this one of the most wonderful celebrations of Easter, but also because it underscores how on such an occasion we can deeply sense the fellowship we share together in the Spirit of Christ here in His church of St. John’s. I believe that it is this sense of spiritual fellowship in Christ is what binds us all in one communion and one community. St. Paul says in Ephesians that, we are all God’s people and members of God’s household, built on the foundation of  the disciples who on Easter morning long ago were illumined in the darkness of their minds and souls by the very light of God. On that Easter morning a new and dynamic faith in God, in Christ, was born. This, faith shared since throughout the ages, is shared by us all who worship here at St John’s, be it every Sunday or on those Sundays when we are able to be here

 

May the Risen Christ be our joy and our peace, and make us know that we are always one with and in Him.

 

Text Box: We all sing Alleluia and thank you! Because Jesus our Lord is standing among us, risen and alive. Death could not hold him! Death is defeated. Sing Alleluia and Joy! Thank you, Lord of life, for defeating death! Here we stand, ready to follow you into your new life! Alleluia and thank you, Jesus Christ, our Lord and our God.

 

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Future dates for your diary to enable you to book those Easy Jet Tickets!!

 

Margery’s annual Paella Party

Friday 23rd June in Aid of her son’s charity work in the Philippines.

 

Organ Recital by Timothy Noon in aid of the Centenary Appeal        Sunday 30th July

Timothy Noon, friend of Peter and Shirley Rowson, and organist at St. David’s Cathedral in Wales will be giving an organ recital for us in Holy Trinity Church Nice. Mr Noon is a former assistant organist at Canterbury cathedral.

 

Piano recitals by Robert Scarmadella in aid of the Centenary Appeal Thursday 7th September, and  Tuesday 12th September.

We look forward to welcoming back Robert Scarmadella who has inspired us in previous years with his wonderful performances.

 

Centenary Celebrations

We are looking forward to celebrating the Centenary year of St. John’s next year in 2007. We are well on schedule with the refurbishments thanks to your generosity. There will be a series of events throughout the year dates and details will be available in September.  One thought we have had is to produce a history/ memoire of the church and for this we need your help. Ian Valentine has put together a history from the archives available but we would like to supplement this with personal memories and photos so if you can help with this we would be glad to hear from you. Publishing deadline 30th September.

 

Church News.

 

At the AGM on March Margery Farr retired from her post of Church warden after 24 years.  Ben writes:

 

This church, indeed any and every church is the people of God who bear witness to their faith by giving of their love and devotion to the care of others, to the worship, to the spiritual life, to the building, and to the growth and fellowship of that church. Anne and I have been privileged over many years to have had a share in the life and witness of wonderful churches in Devon, Barcelona, Paris and now here we have found that the people of God in the church of St. John’s are a very real family and fellowship with many great people who give of their love and devotion in witness. There is an outstanding witness here at St. John’s, that of Margery Farr who has given so much for the life and fellowship here. Everyone of us has been touched by her. Her welcome on a Sunday morning, her constant concern for the needs of people by keeping us all before God in prayer. Her commitment of faith pervades all she does in Christ’s name in and through the church. There is not an aspect of our church’s life over many years that has not been affected by Margery. St. John’s owes her an immeasurable debt of gratitude for all the years, 22 as church warden that she has served the Lord God here in such a selfless way and kept everyone in the church going. Thank God that although she is stepping down as church warden she has now become churchwarden Emeritus, and will continue as our pastoral care secretary. God bless you Margery from all of us.

 

At the AGM Roger  spoke these words:

 

We owe Margery many thanks for her years of loyal service as church warden at St. John’s. Her knowledge of the workings of the Diocese of Europe, went back to the many years she spent in the Brussels congregation.  A friend some years ago, not a churchgoer, having walked around St. Raphael during the service, was surprised she told me, at the very warm welcome she was given by Margery at the church door. That is Margery’s way, to make people feel welcome and at home here. For many years she has been one of our representatives at the annual Synod meetings and for the last few years at the deanery committee meetings in Nice.

 

The tasks she undertook for the church, finding lesson readers, for example, answering the phone when chaplains were away, were not always very visible but helped things to run smoothly and keep on an even keel. I enjoyed my time as churchwarden working with her and will call her now for the last time by the French version of Churchwarden, that is to say that you Margery for being such a good Marguillièr.

 

Margery Writes.

It has been a great joy to work with the congregation of St. John’s over the years. The greatest joy perhaps hasbeen the amazing growth in the numbers coming for the Sunday services. When we came here 30 years ago we were lucky to have eight or ten people in the winter, and a few more in the summer. At that time we shared a chaplain with Marseille who came over once a fortnight, and the other Sundays we took Matins ourselves.

 

In 1990 we were blessed by the arrival of Tom Unsworth. It had been suggested that we share him with Sophie Antipolis, mainly for financial reasons, but thank God this was not considered practical, and Tom and Joan came to us. He started to broaden our territory outside St. Raphael. We did a lot of publicity over a wide area and the congregations increased immediately, which has continued to the present day. It is a great joy to welcome people back each spring, as with the swallows.

 

Lastly I would like to thank a few people with whom I have worked happily on the church council over the years. First of all Marion who has done such splendid work , her predecessor Guy Long and then Yvette as treasurer and I shall always cherish the time with my fellow church wardens Ted Anderson and Roger, and now best wishes to Peter. Thank you Ruby for the beautiful window in memory Ronnie, thank you to the ever faithful Joan Swan and to the equally ever faithful, excellent organists who add so much to our worship.

 

Finally a very special thank you to Ben and Anne who both work so hard for St. John’s, for the monthly lunches, which give so much pleasure, for their ministry in church ,and their pastoral care for those in special need.

 

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 At the AGM Marion Penichot was warmly thanked for her years of service as church secretary.

Since the AGM church officers are:

 

  • Alan Runnicles, Peter Rowson  Church wardens,
  • Shirley Smith  Church secretary.
  • Peter Rowson  temporary treasurer.

 

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Bishop’s Visit.

 

On 2nd April we were very pleased to welcome to St. John’s Bishop David Hamid, the suffragan bishop of  our diocese. He preached and celebrated at the morning service. We all felt that his visit was an inspiration to us, as it is good to be reminded that we do belong to a bigger church. A Vin d’honneur was held after the service and he shared lunch with the church council.                    

 

 

Maundy Thursday 2006

On Maundy Thursday  we gathered together, as Jesus did with his disciples, on the night before he was crucified,  to share a Passover  Supper.  We ate roast lamb with bitter herbs, unleavened bread, choraset and other elements of the traditional Jewish meal.

 

The prayers and readings were taken from the Jewish tradition and thus liked us to Moses and the people of Israel on the night of their deliverance from slavery in Egypt.  The Salvation story led us straight to Christ on this very night that he instituted the Christian meal of the Eucharist, the day before he brought us our salvation on the cross.

 

All this made a most memorable and meaningful occasion for us all.