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A message from the Rector: The Revd. Judy Henning.................

The Rectory Old Cleeve June 2008

Dear Friends

We have just been experiencing some lovely sunny weather, and then today it is cold and wet once again! June, in the past, was usually a reliable month for fine weather, but nowadays? So many things are changing and it must be difficult for some of our older residents to keep up with the pace of living in this digital age. They must remember a much slower way of life, probably without so much red tape! There seems to be a constant increase in the number of rules and regulations by which we must abide these days.

When Jesus walked this earth the Romans were in charge of civil law

enforcement in the Holy Land and the Jews had authority in religious matters, as long as these did not impinge on what the Roman leaders wanted to do. He was asked one day about paying taxes. He looked at a coin and saw the head of Caesar the emperor engraved thereon and said, 'Give to Caesar what is Caesar's and to God what is God's' (Mark 12: 17). He did not advocate the non-payment of taxes nor did he encourage others to break the law of the land. If laws remain within proper boundaries we must obey them and be good citizens, but when they do not we must be the first to speak out against them. All of life belongs to God, and Christians know that. God asks each of us to choose to give back our lives to Him in love and trust.

The rules that God asks us to abide by are simple: 'Love God.. ..and

love your neighbour as yourself (Mt 22:37-39). If only we could all do that!

God bless you.

Judy

A Dav in the Life of a Rural Rector... Today proved to be a very busy day! It began with Morning Prayer at St Andrew's at 8.00 am, then to Porlock for a communion service and a meeting with the Deanery Chapter - all the clergy in the Deanery. We aim to meet up once a month to share what is going on in our parishes, and to support one another. Back via Hedley Price Funeral Directors for information about a person who had died. The Mothers' Union met at the Rectory in the afternoon and Ruth and I gave an illustrated talk about our recent visit to the Holy Land. Finally the Archdeacon called by to discuss one or two things.

A little about the Benefice.............

St. Andrew's stands at the centre of the village of Old Cleeve in Somerset, in the west of England. It is part of a United Benefice of five churches - St. Mary's in Washford, St. Luke's in Roadwater and up in the Brendon Hills, St. Peter's Treborough and St. Giles' Leighland. We hope you will enjoy using this site - both to get to know something about us and our "goings on", but also to make use of some of the suggested links to other sites which provide a tiny glimpse of the work of the church world wide.

This site first went live in May 2000 and received 800 visitors in the first ten months. Very exciting for a for a country Benefice. We have also received a number of very encouraging e mails from across the world and were thrilled to welcome an American priest from the diocese of Utah who actually came to worship at St. Andrew's when she was over here, directly as a result of the web site.

Increasingly the internet has not only shrunk the world, but it has also empowered ordinary people to access knowledge and to communicate with each other with unprecedented ease. Even those who were, through disability or isolation, often marginalized in the past have found it liberating. It is for this reason that the church has a duty to embrace and make use of the new technology, just as it did in previous centuries with the advent of printing - it is every bit as important.We would be delighted to know who has visited our site and where you come from, why not drop us an e mail?

standrewoldcleeve@hotmail.com

P.S. Do not forget our prayer request list too.

Best wishes,

Claire

(Website editor)

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