A Reflection from our chaplain Chris . . . .

He who keeps you will not slumber...

He will neither slumber nor sleep
(Psalm 121.3-4)

My walks in Menton at this time of year are different. It's hot, there are more people on the streets, and the beaches are packed. Some people are swimming in the water, some are playing games and reading, but many just appear to be dozing in the sunshine. It is what holidays are all about. We are looking forward to our holiday starting next week, as I write this, and to enjoying some long, sleepy days.
As humans, we need food and sleep. Numerous scientific studies in recent
years point to the need for adequate sleep, and the risks for those who don't
get enough. Certainly for me, I know I have a better mood, I can think more
clearly and I am generally better to be around if I have had enough sleep!
The first creation story in the book of Genesis – the seven-day creation epic
– sets our need for rest within the pattern of the created universe. It even says
that God rested 'on the seventh day' and that the Sabbath rhythm follows
from that. Of course, that is one insight into the nature of God as creative and
playful. But no one simile can express the entire truth of what God is like –
in fact, not all the language in the world can!
Another image comes through consistently in the Bible. That God never
gives up, that God is always there, that God never rests, that God constantly
sustains every moment of life. For the whole cosmos. That truth is what the
Psalmist is tapping into. And that truth is immensely comforting.
That truth says that when you are at your lowest, when you are completely
lost, God is always there. That truth says that even when you are at your wits
end, exhausted, you can rest; God will continue to care for you. That truth
says that you might not be able to pray continually for your friends in need,
or situations in the world,, but that God will continue to move in those people
and places.
There are so many places and people who need prayer. We can feel
helpless knowing what to do. We are called to do what we can and then to
rest, so we can continue tomorrow to do again what we can. In learning to
rest well, it helps me to learn to trust that while we slumber, God continues to
sustain the world.
In peace, Chris

God in Music

'Glorious the song when God's the theme':
Fauré's Requiem

At the end if his life in 1924, Gabriel Fauré, the French composer, said to his sons, “when I am no longer here, you will hear it said of my works, 'After all, that was nothing much to write home about!' You must not let that hurt or depress you.
It is the way of the world.” His concern was ill-founded, for Fauré's compositions, vocal, choral and instrumental, have become standard works in concert programmes and much loved by all who value the beauty and joy of music.
Certainly, the one work of Fauré's that is most frequently performed, his
Requiem, had a lukewarm reception at its first performance. That was in 1888 at the funeral of an important Parisian architect in the church of the Madeleine.
Afterwards the priests there told Fauré that the church's own musical repertoire did not require this new addition, and so for over 20 years the Requiem was virtually ignored.
Now it is one of the most loved and sublime settings of the Requiem. Is it
because of the graceful, fleeting lines of melodies that Debussy compared to the
gesture of a beautiful woman? Or is it because of the resigned, yet optimistic
approach to death and eternal life that is at the heart of Fauré's setting. He wrote, 'It has been said that my Requiem does not express the fear of death and someone has called it a lullaby of death. But it is thus that I see death as a happy deliverance, an aspiration towards happiness above...'
Written on the death of his parents, the Requiem in many ways marks the end of Fauré's youth. It was a youth that could be said to have begun with another beautiful choral work, the Cantique de Jean Racine. This was composed in 1865 when Fauré was just 20 years old and finishing his studies at the Ecole Niedermeyer. Yet, however youthful, it has all the hallmarks of the great composer: a serenity and a delicacy in setting the words, and a clarity of line and beauty of proportion that makes the work sing out its prayer. It addresses Jesus the Word and asks that he will watch over us and send us his grace. If we have been forgetful, then stir our hearts again. Receive this song, it prays, which is your gift to us returned in full measure.
The Cantique points to God as the author of all beauty. The music we compose is his inspiration and gift in our lives, which we offer to the world and to him. In the novel 'God's Apology' by Olivia Fane, the ten-year old girl, Joanna, talks of music as God's gift in this way. 'I have come,' she says, 'because the lines of communication between our two worlds have been frayed. Music is the language of God. We can not only hear it, we can sing it. So sing now: sing in joy and in pain, sing to God.'
As we listen to Fauré's Requiem or Cantique, we can rejoice in that gift of music and find it opening up God's world of beauty and harmony for us to hear and enjoy.
The Rev. Michael Burgess

Something for us to think about ....
from the Scots writer Maurice Fleming ........

“Despite all the progress mankind has made over the centuries, all his discoveries and inventions, the baby born this hour will know nothing of any of it. It will be as if none of it had yet happened.

Every child's mind is a clean sheet. The world's knowledge is out
there, but the long learning process has to begin, for that child as for
every other, from a starting point of nothing.
What that child learns rests with you and me.”

Image: Scottish Traditions Series

Life at St. James-the-Least
The Rectory,
St. James-the-Least

My dear Nephew Darren,

So, now you have enjoyed your first summer Fete, don't say I didn't warn you. It may be small consolation, but remember that they only happen once a year although in your case, you still have another 40 to endure before retirement.
I negotiated our own last week. As usual, the band from our neighbouring parish of St. Eusebius played. There has been much bad blood in the past between our two villages. The trouble started on the day that St. James-the-Least never told St. Eusebius that the Vikings were coming up the river. We may have long since buried the hatchet, but both sides remember where they put it.
Tension between the two communities down the centuries has moved on from
occasional slaughter to something a little more refined. Just as I began my opening speech to crown the Rose Queen, the band struck up with the National Anthem. When the hog roast started, they played 'smoke gets in your eyes' and when it came to the necessary music for the maypole dancing, they all disappeared into the beer tent.
With great Christian charity, we shall bide our time. In September we have the
annual football match between the two church's Servers. Last year, in addition to winning the match, the St. James' boys sent three of their side off with concussion.
Naturally, I visited them in hospital.
Miss Prendergast, as always, played Gypsy Rose Lee. If the tall, dark, dear lady
tells me one more time that I am about to find romance with a tall dark lady, while she flutters her eyelashes at me, I swear I shall throttle her with a bell rope. Besides, I already have a beautiful dark lady in my life – and my labrador is devoted to me.
The only real hiccough came when I bought 12 packets of fudge from Mrs
Masheder to present to our choirboys. Yet again, she had misread salt for sugar in the recipe. After I presented her packets at Mattins the following day, a formal complaint was rapidly made by a parent to the police that the Rector was attempting to poison their son. But as I explained to the officer, if I had intended to poison anyone, I would have done it far more discreetly – and infinitely more efficiently.
I toy with that possibility for Mrs Masheder before next year's Fete.
Your loving uncle,
Eustace

You’re warmly invited to join us once a month in Bordighera, Italy,

for an informal Eucharist service — a time of reflection, community, and worship in a relaxed setting.

Wednesday 17 September, 10h30

The English Cemetery Chapel Bordighera.

For more information see

The Rev'd Chris.

Coins for Funds

Do you remember 'Barbara's Bottle'

which used to be at the back of the church to collect any current euro or sterling coins which were no longer needed by people returning to their home countries or which were weighing too heavily in their purses? Well, Beatrice has now taken on the collecting of such coins in aid of our Church funds, so please give the coins you no longer want to Beatrice or The Rev'd Chris. Thank you.