Roger Scoones' Monthly Dialogue
Rev Roger Scoones
Rev Roger Scoones is Rector of St Mary's Parish Church, Stockport and is a well known figure in the local community.
June at St Mary’s
2009
This month has started off with a spell of warm sunny weather, which
reminds us that on the Continent it is usually very warm for most of the
Summer, especially in France.
The other day we were blessed with a visit from a French Choir “Chant’Rives”, who live in villages near Grenoble. I would have thought that their part of the world was particularly verdant, but they all said that what struck them about England was how green it is! Manchester is noted for its rainfall and Stockport is part of the Greater Manchester conurbation, so we at St Mary’s receive our fair share of rain! St Mary’s, in fact, stands on a promontory, overlooking the River Mersey, which brings the rain down, via the River Goyt, into the Mersey, all the way from the Pennine Hills to the east of us. Thanks to all this rain it is, indeed, a very “green and pleasant land”!
I mention “green”, because this is the ecclesiastical colour which the Church uses to denote this part of the year, from Pentecost (June) until October. You will see this throughout the Christian Church worldwide. It’s not a very exciting colour, but its natural, nature’s colour – at least in Stockport, Cheshire. The French visitors were right!
Our Church calendar is not very exciting either after all the activity in May. However for those who were confirmed by the Bishop of Stockport, at St Mary’s the week after Trinity Sunday, I’m sure June will be a very special month of new experiences. Taking Holy Communion for the first time, will be one of them for those who were confirmed. After the splashes of reds and gold of ecclesiastical colour at the beginning of the month we set off for 5 months of green, maybe “life is a bit like that”!
On a personal note, I begin the month of June, not always, but often, with a few days on retreat on the delightful little island of St Honorat,
one of Les Lerins, near Cannes, in the South of France. A group of Christians from Holy Trinity Church in Cannes and friends spend 3 days in the monastery, which we have come to find most uplifting over the years. It is a world apart from the glamorous and wealth-laden beaches of the Cote d’Azur, but it is still ‘the real world’, in which we live, though rather simpler, “greener”, you might say.
In June the school children are happy if it’s sunny and they can play outside. But for many, it is of course a term for examinations. We all have memories of those. I’m more than pleased if a Primary School, like Warren Wood Primary invites me to conduct an Assembly for the children. I paint. They love to work out what the picture and the words I paint in are going to be. There will always be a message about God, which I hope will help them in their young lives.
In June there will be a great gathering of folk including myself, in London, to give thanks for the life and ministry of the Reverend David Steele a well known Evangelical Anglican clergyman who died recently. Although his funeral was very well attended, this special occasion will draw together many people like myself whose lives have been influenced for good by this one man, whose gift was to teach others about the Bible, and to teach them to pass it on! I’m sure it will be an inspiring occasion, as Memorial Services often are.
In July the only “wedding of the year” will take place at St Mary’s. This is surely a sign of the times! We have a magnificent medieval Church, with a fabulous interior, with vaulted ceilings, gothic arches and spectacular stained glass windows, not to mention a user-friendly Vicar, and yet only one wedding a year! The couple will come to see me in June, this month, in preparation for the day and for their married life. It’s always a helpful meeting, and an enjoyable aspect of ministry. I do wonder what pastoral care and counselling couples get before a non-religious marriage.
In the third week of June we at St Mary’s will be welcoming two very
different groups of children to Church, one from Chernobyl, and another
from our local schools. The local school will be performing a Concert in
aid of the
Wellspring Centre – for people in need in Stockport, and
promises to be a happy evening’s entertainment. The Chernobyl children
will be coming as part of a programme of visits on their short,
health-restoring holiday from that area of the world that was so
devastated many years ago. The children of today still suffer from the
wrongs of years past. We do our bit to help – to make June a greener
month, and the world a greener place!
That’s St Mary’s in June!
Roger Scoones
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