Open Door Magazine

The Open Door magazine is produced bi-monthly by our church and delivered to over 500 houses in the parish and beyond. It includes articles (some of which are submitted by members of the congregation), information regarding weddings, baptisms and funerals, poetry, jokes and adverts.

For further information  regarding placing adverts in the magazine, please contact, preferably by email, the parish administrator.
 

The following is the vicar’s article from the latest issue, February 2010:-

‘The Vicar Writes

As I write this article we are enduring some of the worst weather conditions we have encountered for a good number of years although, no doubt, the snow and ice will all have melted by the time you read this article. Despite the weather forecasts, we still seem to have been caught unawares and even though great efforts were made to keep the roads clear, the country began to grind to a halt.

In the past, weather forecasts would have been taken with a pinch of salt, but now they have become extremely accurate and so it comes as a bit of a shock when they get it wrong. The heavy snow that was forecast for this weekend didn’t happen; even so many events and meetings were cancelled in advance as a consequence of the forecast. Road gritters are dictated by the forecast; schools were closed as a result of a heavy snow fall and the prospect of another one overnight. Inevitably there was a cost involved, workers were left stranded and lost pay, many cars were involved in collisions and the local authorities had their resources stretched almost to breaking point.

On occasions, like many people, I found myself unable to venture outdoors; something seemingly simple to overcome, like the frozen 15 yard slope on my drive, prevented me from driving out onto what was sometimes a snow and ice free road. Other times, the packed snow or black ice on the main roads meant that appointments had to be cancelled. That left me with the luxury of having “extra” time on my hands. I have since reflected on how I used that extra time which presented itself to me and kept me at home. Part of the time was spent battling to keep my drive clear of snow; I made phone calls that were normally low priority but still important; I prepared this article in good time rather than leaving it to  the last minute; I spent time doing the preparatory study for a course I will be attending, and so on. I also took the opportunity to spend more time with God. I deliberately left this point until last because, so often, God can be last on our priority list. It’s easy to allow the pressures of life, however great or small they are, to diminish our relationship with God.

In the Bible, the Book of Ecclesiastes in Chapter 3 talks of time, that “There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven”. In this book the writer ponders life, man’s purpose in life and the use of our time. He comes to the conclusion that all of his efforts to improve himself are worthless. He encourages us to stand back from short term goals and pleasures and put our trust in the long term, especially in trusting God. In the final two verses of the book the writer sums up his advice gained from his own life’s experiences when he says “Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man. For God will bring every good deed into judgement, including every hidden thing, whether it is good or evil” Ecclesiastes 12:13-14.

Our time is precious and the time spent with God even more precious. Let’s not waste time by spending it on the trivial things in life; we should try to learn from the experiences of the writer of Ecclesiastes.

Dave’