FROM ST GILES’ CLERGY

The vast majority of conversations I had last week included a sense of delight in the community spirit of Ickenham.  Our thanks go to the many people who put a huge effort into celebrating and enhancing our community life through the Ickenham Festival events they organised, and especially to the very hard working committee for the immense amount they do.  

A common focus like the Ickenham Festival really helps bring the community together.  Likewise, the ancient community of Israel had a number of festivals each year celebrating God’s faithfulness to them.  In addition, their life together was based around a highly prized God-given set of guidelines for community - no other nation had anything similar, so Israel felt very privileged.

However to us today, the over-riding impression of ‘The Ten Commandments’ is a set of prohibitions all starting with ‘Do not...’  Some see them as very negative, designed to stop any sort of fun; a code of practice for killjoys, from a God who is determined to make our lives miserable!

Against this bad press, society has hidden them away in the attic and churches have often side-lined them, together with God’s wisdom for society. 

At St Giles’, along with a large number of other churches in the UK, we want to re-discover the wisdom of the Ten Commandments and the heart of the God who gave them to society.  Understanding that they were ‘Given in love, and written in stone’ is a good place to start.  Re-phrasing them to discover why God might have given them is also instructive.  For instance, finding contentment in life is the message behind ‘Do not covet’, and holding onto truth is the aim behind ‘Do not bear false witness’.

Starting on 12th September at our 9.45am service we begin a series of services looking at each of the commandments, called Just10.  (See details on page 7.)  We extend an open invitation to all to come along and judge whether God’s guidelines are still relevant for building strong community in 21st century Britain.

For the time being, I wish you a restful and relaxing time over the summer and God’s blessing whether you stay in Ickenham or go away.

Adrian

 

FROM THE URC MINISTER

Singing along with Mamma Mia during the Ickenham Festival, we saw the exuberant wedding preparations heightened by the geyser of water bursting through the mosaic floor and showering the party. 

The geological society’s new contribution to the Hobbies, Arts and Crafts Exhibition in the Festival featured volcanoes, with samples of amazing rocks spewed from the earth, and even a box of ash like the cloud from Iceland that recently brought air traffic to a standstill.

The climax of the Big Band in Music for a Summer Evening on the Festival’s Gala Day was emphasised by the explosion of fireworks colour and sound above the glory of Swakeleys House.

The Ickenham Festival itself is a brilliant display of the talents and interests of so many groups and individuals in the community, quietly working away through the years, then building up to burst into public view for all to enjoy in the tumultuous week of festivities.

Gardens and walks, entertainment and exhibitions, competitions and concerts, sales and sideshows, sports and music, food and drink, special people and scarecrows, charities and histories, work and worship, conversations and celebrations: so much is thrown open during the week and flows through the streets, grounds and river on the final weekend.

An outburst of welcome, with ring and robe and feasting surprised the miserable, emaciated lad who had wasted his inheritance, when he returned to his father in the Father’s Day worship story on the last day of the Festival.  The joy of that reunion, the joy of meeting up with people at the Festival, and the joy of meeting the Father of All leave us overflowing with thanksgiving.

Our thanks go to the Ickenham Festival Team, the organisers of all the events and everyone who helped in any way.  May our thanks flow through the way we support the ongoing activities and the build up to the effusion in two years’ time. 

Meanwhile the theme of this year’s Holiday Club will provide the next set of startling showstoppers.

Bernie