Christmas 1965
The Vicarage, Blackmore,
Essex.
19 - CHRISTMAS - 65
Dear Friend,
This ninth Christmas Letter
from Blackmore means that for more than eight years our home has been
established in the Essex Countryside. Friends of long standing have asked
whether we like life in a country parish and our reply is -we like the place,
we like the people and we like the work. There is always a welcome into the
homes of the parish. Special occasions, a birth, a marriage, a bereavement,
some good fortune or an unexpected trial, provide opportunities to serve the
Lord Jesus Christ in sharing with and serving our spiritual charges. Our
ministry is already reaching into a second generation for there are children
who come running to greet one when visiting the village school whose parents
were joined in marriage during our first years in Blackmore.
When reviewing the year in
retrospect we arm ourselves with the Vicar's diary-and the year's issues of
"Friends', our parish magazine; thus we recall the principal items of
interest. The usual services and activities referred to in earlier letters
continue. The St. Laurence Youth Club was started in January. The Young Wives
Fellowship is in its second year. The fortnightly Bible Study in the Vicarage
has made a start with the Gospel on John. Scion our team of helpers will be
making up the Christmas food parcels for the old folks. There were 87 last
year. The combined Garden Party and Gift Day in June was a success, as was a
wonderful Flower Festival in the Church over the August Bank holiday. The
Church Army supplied officers to lead in a parish mission. Home meetings were used
to reach non-Churchgoing adults. It is not easy to assess the outcome. It seems
certain that interest was aroused with some and that the local church must
follow up with an evident concern for those who showed interest.
We have benefitted from the new
lighting and heating in the church. Work is in hand for the renewal of two
large dormer windows and then we face a major task of repairs and decoration to
the interior of our church. It will cost in the neighbourhood of £2,000.
If our letter seems parochial
thus far it is not that we are unaware of events in the larger world about us.
It is that we so value the prayers and evident interest of those to whom our
letter goes that we feel a duty to inform them. As to the larger world it is at
the same time encouraging and disappointing. The idealogical tensions which in
places issue in conflicts; the entrenchment of the "haves" against a
surrender of standards and privileges to the "have nots'; the unscrupulous
exploitation of national and international situations to serve political ends;
these all sadden one's heart.
Against this the Christian can
take comfort in what seems an evident movement of God the Holy Spirit in the
affairs of men. The searchings of heart and fresh recognition of the authority
of Holy Scripture in the Roman Church; the universal desire of Christians to
find a unity in Christ with a readiness to meet on points of agreement rather
than to squabble over points of disagreement; the impact of evangelical witness
through the Pentecostal Churches; the use of radio and television to carry the
Gospel into the very homes of the people; the continuing endeavour of
Christians everywhere to be followers of their Lord and Saviour; these gladden one's
heart.
Considering the conditions of
the time, parochial and extra parochial, we find our thoughts turning to the
record of the Apostle John - Jesus said, I have told you . . . In the world you
will have trouble, but courage! The Victory is mine; I have conquered the
world. In me you may find peace. (John 16, 33. L.E.B.). Peace can be
appreciated only by those who have endured in conflict the absence of peace. In
the peace which ensues from conflict there is the peace of the victorious -
triumphant and reward and the peace of the subdued - oppressive and
impoverishing.
It was in the world that the
Captain of our salvation or, the leader who delivers, as the N.E.B. puts it,
met hi: conflict and triumphed so making peace by the blood of his cross. It is
in the world that Christ's soldiers - his followers, are called to engage in
the conflict which will lead to their peace. This ultimate, spiritual and
eternal peace is secured on the ground of Christ's own victory over Satan at
the cross. According to Scripture the peace God gives is meant to be the
experience of Christian here and now.
Those who are not led by
Christ may have a kind of peal secured by their submissions to the Evil One but
it is spiritually oppressive and impoverishing; the Christian on the other hand
can rejoice in the spiritual and moral comfort in which he is involved because
by this means he can, in following his Lord, endure with courage, experience
victor: and rest triumphantly, rewardingly in the peace he finds in Christ.
Peace was at the very heart of
the angels' message as they announced the birth of the Babe of Bethlehem, whose
advent we celebrate this season.
It was good to hear from so
many of our friends. You', no idea what pleasure you gave us. If you didn't
receive an acknowledgement, in kindness receive this in lieu and with much
gratitude. H.B. has found the going rough at times through the year and M.H.
managed to slip a disc from which he is recovering. Otherwise we are fine and
all is well, for which we render thanks to God.
With every good wish for
Christmas and the Year of Grace 1966.
Hilda & Montague H. Knott.
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