Dear Friends,

    My five minutes of fame on national TV.......
    Christ's patient loving care over generations.......

We were on GMTV over the summer hols.  Did you see us?   There's no TV in our caravan so we've not seen ourselves, but others have, even someone from the Parish.  They remarked on my homemade kebabs: sumptuous, multicoloured layers of vegetables and chicken threaded together and cooked over red-hot, glowing charcoal.

The children too were filmed gambolling over nearby dunes having fun in the sunshine (between the raindrops).  In fact Camber Sands, where we stayed, was more like a film set.  Cheggers (Keith Chegwin to the uninitiated) was on the sand playing volleyball, and a drama was being filmed at a beachside house with a fashionably-dressed man looking grave about something silhouetted against the pounding waves.

This flurry of filming got me to thinking about reality and fantasy in our lives.  Certainly our experience of TV production showed there is more fantasy than fact in programme-making.  For despite the ‘professionalism' of my kebabs I'm no expert, having only cooked them once before, and that sultry man in the drama had his trousers held in place by a line of safety pins down the back crease.   Appearance was so important to these items, and whilst a bit of light-hearted fun is good, it's no good to take this too seriously.  Our world is neither squeaky-clean perfection nor grinding inevitability as TV life often portrays.  The glamorous, shiny world of celebrity is not a replacement for the Christian message of ‘love your neighbour as yourself', with all the challenges that brings.

In a world weary of cynicism and spin it is easy to say that many forms of communication are a means of hiding something, being manipulative, or feathering our own nest.  Certainly, following Christ is about being an idealist, but not to the extent of being foolishly manipulated.  However, trust is one of the central traits of Christian faith and it is a belief in something we can't see.   That is so different from TV where we can see everything and apparently know everything.  Faith isn't like that; it is a reaching-out, a trust in a greater power for good and one which can transform our lives and communities.  Can you support that ideal, even if you feel very doubtful at times?  Is it better to be a hopeful person rather than a pessimistic one?

It is my conviction as a Christian that Christ helps us build better communities.  In prayer and worship we can be strengthened and guided in ways to care for one another whatever the need.  We can be shown how to bring the Christian message to people in a way that touches and seems relevant to them.  At this time in St George's and at St Mark's (for Hale) we are preparing Presentations to show to everyone who has an interest in our churches.  These will describe what we have done, what we are doing now and our plans for the future.  We would love to see you at our events and hear what you think Christians ought to be doing in our area.

All television companies need financing to stay on air.  GMTV does it by enticing companies to advertise during their programmes, and the BBC is paid for by our licence fee.  Churches have no ‘fairy godmother' to pay for them, and we have to rely on people who come to and use the church to pay for ourselves.  It is only the generosity of people like you that keeps St Mark's, St John's and St George's open and cared for by two full-time priests.  Just as in the secular world, money is important for us to be effective.  During these Presentations we will be asking people to consider prayerfully the financial commitment they will make to the church.

Details of the timing of the Presentations are to be found in the parish magazine.  Of course we want you to feel at home with your children in the church, and so at the St Mark's Presentation there will be a crèche, and the Family Praise presentation at St George's will be tailored for all ages (toddlers with tantrums and grannies with the grumps).  Both these events will include a light lunch.

Whatever else, we ask that you pray for us and our plans so that God's Kingdom come and [His] will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

With love in Christ,

Revd. Carol Wilson-Barker