Welcome to St Swithins Church

By The Rev Matt earwicker

Villages - April 2024...

Dear Friends

It’s Easter again. The highest point in the Christian year. Christmas might have the bigger parties, but it is Easter which Christians have always considered the turning point in the history of the world (even if St Bede understandably felt that our years should be counted from the birth of Jesus, not his death). Because Easter marks both the lowest point in human existence—when humanity was willing to kill the creator of all that exists, animate and inanimate—and the starting point of hope for the future. It is the point where God shows how much he is committed to making this work.

That’s a challenging phrase, isn’t it - “make it work”? It reminds us that some important decisions—even though we feel relatively certain we are making the right choice—require effort even after the decision is made. Whether that is a business deal with a new supplier, a tricky family situation, or some other commitment that stretches our resources, we want it to be successful, but that will only happen if we throw ourselves at it. At which point what really matters is the reason or reasons why we made that decision.

When I was a teenager, my school day began with getting up at 5.45 to get to the station to catch a train that took about an hour, and then walk a mile to school. The school day finished at 6.05pm, and I would be home just before 8, ready to eat, do some homework and go to bed. And I imagine that many of you have had similar times in your lives, whether the reason was school, work, family or something else. The point is not that I think I’m amazing for doing it, but rather that it never bothered me because I loved my school time so much (well, most of it, anyway - I never enjoyed cross country running). It wasn’t will power, nor fear of my parents that got me up in the morning, but a desire to make the most of the amazing opportunity I had.

And it’s similar with God. The Bible teaches us that Jesus didn’t die out of a sense of duty, nor an exaggerated desire to prove himself, but because the reason mattered to him so much: his love for all humanity. God didn’t look at his creation and think, “well, it’s a mess, but it’s all I’ve got, so I’d better make the most of it.” Jesus famously says that it was because God loved the world so much that he sent his son to die for us.

Easter is a time of joy as spring returns, hopefully with a little less rain in store for us this year. The lengthening days, the blossoming flowers and the fresh food to eat raise our spirits. But the greatest joy of all is that it is a time when we remember that God truly does love us all and is willing to do whatever it takes to make that relationship work. And that lifts my heart even more than the sunniest day.

“May Christ, who out of defeat brings new hope and a new future, fill you with his new life.”

With every blessing, Matt

From Bishop STEPHEN~ Bishop of SALISBURY

February 2025

Good Morning all,

At the west end of your cathedral, on the south wall nearest the main entrance, is a large slate stone which records all the names of the Bishops of Salisbury. Mine is the most recent to have been inscribed. I am number 79. Someone else will follow. It serves to make one feel small rather than important.

The first name is that of Herman, whose day falls this month on 20th February. A native of Lorraine (in north-eastern France), Herman was made Bishop of Ramsbury in 1045. He resigned in 1055 when King Edward the Confessor refused to allow the transfer of the see to Malmesbury. He became a monk at Saint-Omer (in northern France), returning to England in 1058 to become Bishop of Sherborne while at the same time being restored to the bishopric of Ramsbury. By 1071, Herman was old and infirm and wished to resign but Archbishop Lanfranc urged him to stay on. There was a plan. Approval of the transfer of the see was given at the Council of London in 1075, thus creating the new diocese of Salisbury, to which you belong. Herman oversaw the initial construction of the Cathedral at Old Sarum but died before its completion, on 20th February in 1078.

Herman would have known where you live and known and cared for your patch of the diocese. A diocese is only the sum total of its parts, and whilst it is the Anglican model of apostolic local leadership, the real strength of mission and ministry is to be found in the local, just as Jesus’ ministry was locally based and exercised. We all follow in the footsteps of those who have carried the flame of faith before us in each place. It is that faithfulness, mirroring the fact that God is faithful, that has sustained our communities down the ages, however much the times and the names change. And God will continue to do so, because He is faithful.

Stephen, Bishop of Salisbury