Buckley Parish Church Magazine Cover"
Saint Matthew's Parish Church, Church Road, Buckley
February 1939
see 139.72 for the cover (this entry) and 139.74,75,80 - 86 for the adverts.
BUCKLEY PARISH CHURCH MAGAZINE FEBRUARY 1939
THE VICAR'S LETTER
My dear Friends and Parishioners,
We record with great regret the death of two faithful members of our congregation. Mrs. Catherine Catherall, of Church Road, was much beloved and respected by her neighbours. She had been once a member of the Mothers' Union and remained to the end a faithful communicant at St. Matthew's. She had not been in good health for some time. She was one who worked quietly and unobtrusively, the type of person whose death is a real loss to the Church.
Mr. Simmons was a well known public man through his connection with the gas and water works. He was also an energetic school manager, who regularly attended the meetings as long as health permitted him. He had been for a long time a faithful and devout member of our congregation. His much respected son was once curate of this parish. He died after a long and painful illness, bravely borne. His cheery presence will be greatly missed in Buckley and especially at St. Matthew's. Mrs. Catherall and Mr. Simmons were types of church members whose places are not easily filled. May they rest in peace.
Lent will be here before the next issue of the magazine. I hope we shall determine to keep it well. Lent should be a kind of spiritual spring-cleaning, bracing us up for greater spiritual activity for the rest of the year. While we have no occasion to complain, we mush be aware of becoming complacent and self-contented. This is true of our individual and corporate church life.
The parish priest often makes a mental classification of his people. (1) Many parishes are fortunate enough to have "an inner circle" a little band of people who come to church frequently if not daily during the week. They may be found at the daily Eucharist, and even at the daily offices. In such parishes, there are generally a leisured class. We recognise that such a standard of church attendance is not possible for the bulk of church people, even if they were willing. But it must not be supposed that all these are leisured people, because they are not. I knew a bank director whose business carried him all over the country every week, London, Edinburgh, Cardiff and his country home saw him nearly every week, but wherever he was he seldom or never missed attending the daily Eucharist. He not only looked for a convenient hotel but also for a convenient church wherever he went. He also conducted the weekly choir practice in his own parish church. This was his weekly round, and until well after his seventieth year. Such a churchman corresponds with those of whom we read in the Acts, "they broke bread daily from house to house." It ought not to be impossible to have such an "inner circle" of church people at Buckley. The finding of time for such devotion just depends on whether it is regarded as of sufficient importance. Meanwhile, the paid staff maintain the daily Eucharist, but it would be a great strength to church life to have the presence of others at the daily intercession.
(2) Then there is the band of weekly communicants to be found in many parishes. They may be devout as those mentioned in the first class, but they have not the opportunity of coming in the week. But they do strive to keep the apostolic standard of partaking in breaking of the bread on the first day of every week. We have a few such at St. Matthew's, but we ought to have a lot more. The attendance at the eight o'clock Sunday Communion has improved, though it has dropped in the recent spell of cold weather. I hope our Lenten observance will lead to a permanent increase in the band of weekly communicants.
(3) There is a larger band of those who regard it as an obligation and a privilege, if not to be weekly communicants, at least to be present at the Eucharist every Sunday. The Catholic Christian regards this as the minimum rule of Christian worship. This has been the relaxed rule of the church since the days of the Emperor Constantine, in the fourth century. There are a number of people who keep this rule in Buckley. The result is that the attendance at the Sunday Sung Eucharist, though not so large as at Evensong, is steadier. It does not go up and down so much according to the weather. Those who observe it are not deterred by disinclination or bad weather. Nothing short of ill-health or necessity is allowed to interfere with what they regard as an obligation. We need a very large increase in the number of those who observe this rule. Many have fallen away from this standard. We appeal to them to come back to it this Lent. Many have never seriously thought of it. Will they not think over it now, and determine henceforth to observe it? The test of a really healthy church life is the number of those who belong to one or other of these three classes.
(4) Then there is the still larger class of those good and conscientious people who generally come to church every Sunday, but they are not at all particular about the Eucharist. They come to Evensong. If they do that they are satisfied.
They may observe the minimum rule of three communions a year or only come at Easter. Very often they give liberally and work willingly for the church. The late Mr. Cropper in his history of Buckley devoted a chapter to "Sunday Evening in the Churches". A far more searching test is Sunday morning in the churches. Sunday evenings test the popularity of a church. That is not enough. Eucharistic attendance tests the devotion of a church. That is far more important.
(5) Then there is the still larger class of occasional attenders. They often presume to make their Easter communion. They attend funerals, weddings, harvest festivals and church parades. Apart from these occasions they are seldom or never seen in church. Very often they are generous givers and willing workers. But they are buttresses more than pillars, supporting the church outside more than within. This is a corrupt form of Christianity, severely deprecated in the epistle to the Hebrews. "Not forsaking the assembling together as the manner of some is". They realise in their hearts that such a way of living is wrong, serious disobedience to the first four commandments. If, my dear reader, you have had the patience to read as far as this, I do appeal to you, this Lent, to come up at any into class 4, as a start, or better still to class 3 or higher.
(6) Then there is class 6, alas, the largest class of all - nearly all baptised, many confirmed, who never go to any church at all on Sunday - yet, inconsistently enough, they claim the Church's marriage and burial rites. It is quite beyond the power of the clergy to reach this large class of men and women. We couldn't visit them once a year; and what good would that do? These are best reached by the influence of their churchgoing friends and neighbours. The faithful laity has far more opportunity and influence to evangelise than the clergy. Not a few have been brought to Buckley church in that way, through the good influence of friends. That is the highest form of church work.
Well, whichever of these classes we are in, let us determines this Lent to move up a class or two, and beware of self-righteous contempt of these in the class below. For classes 1-6, we are all sinners, and we all need the penitence and absolution which freely experienced in Christ and his Church.
And remember, these are classifications, not judgments. It does not follow that the man in class 1 is of necessity a better man than the one in class 6. It is not for us to judge. The only persons I have ever met who are presumptuous enough to judge are these non-church goers who occasionally tell me that they are just as good as those that go. Of course, I suppose they know.
After a long spell of fairly good congregations and collections, we have fallen considerably in the recent cold weather, and there has been much sickness. We all hope that this depressing period will soon end.
Your sincere Friend and Vicar,
W. J. REES
Tuesday Feb.14th - Mothers' Union service and meeting after 7 p.m. Maintenance Fund Collectors, 7.30 p.m.
Tuesday Feb. 21st (Shrove Tuesday) - Mothers' Union Whist Drive in Gladstone Hut, 7 p.m.
Ash Wednesday Feb. 22nd - Parish Church - Holy Communion, 7.30 a.m. Children's Service, 9 a.m. Evensong and Sermon, 7 p.m.
Lent Preachers at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Feb. 28th (St. David's Eve) - The Rev. O. G. Pritchard, Vicar of Nannerch
Tuesday, March 7th - Rev. F. Eve. St. John's, Pentrobin
Tuesday, March 14th - Rev. D. S. Rees, Rector of Hawarden
Tuesday, March 21st - Rev. R. M. Williams, Vicar of Mold
Tuesday, March 28th and April 4th - Rev. Eryl Thomas, Ewloe
The Mothers' Union at their last meeting decided to have a little Whist Drive in the Gladstone Hut on Shrove Tuesday. The profit will be for their Garden Fete Stall. Admission fee and refreshments charges will be low, so all may come.
ALTAR FLOWERS
Feb. 5 - Mrs. Roberts, Old Hall
Feb. 11 - Mrs. Tom Hodgson
Feb. 19 - Mrs. Herbert Shone
BRASSES
Feb. 4 - Mrs. Connah and Mrs. Owen
Feb. 12 - The Misses B. and L. Catherall
Feb. 18 - Mrs. J. and Mrs. A. Shone
Feb. 25 - Mrs. Bellis
Author: Buckley Parish Church
Tags
Year = 1939
Month = February
Building = Religious
Document = Journal
Extra = 1930s
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