St Mary's musings for July

At St Mary’s we celebrate as Rev Chris Shore is ordained as a Priest.  He has been working with us as a Deacon for the last year and was ordained on 28 June 2025. 

Rev Chris writes for us:
The first time I wrote a piece for the Village News was exactly one year ago. I had not long written my final essay and finished my ministerial training at Ridley Hall in Cambridge, been ordained as a deacon by +Dagmar in Ely Cathedral, and was very much the “new boy” in the Parish of St Mary the Virgin, Great Shelford. So here we are again, one year on, and I’ve just been back to the cathedral to be ordained priest. Understandably, many might be wondering why +Dagmar didn’t finish the job first time round! The office of deacon, as I wrote last year, is that of a servant, an assistant and is still a “training” position. My job for the past year has been to help Reverend Julie as best I can with all her duties in the parish, to get to know the church and as much of the village as I can, to pitch in and serve anywhere I could. I’ve particularly enjoyed spending quite a lot of time in the school helping with Collective Worship and some of the village children now recognise me when I’m out and about - I can only hope that is sign of some kind of positive impact! Becoming a part, however small, of the life of a village like Great Shelford has been a huge privilege - it really is a lovely place to work. So, what of the next year? To be ordained priest is to accept a leadership role in the church. I will still be an Assistant Curate in Reverend Julie’s team, and still have a lot to learn, but will be taking on a greater responsibility for planning and leading our worship, for helping Reverend Julie shape the future of the church in the community. It’s a responsibility and a privilege which I don’t take lightly. The first year has been full of new experiences, new people and new relationships. I am looking forward immensely to the next year and to sharing it with all of you.
                    

Reflection for the month - July

 Hope

Our hope in God’s mercy is reflected when we pray ‘Thy kingdom come’, for God’s kingdom of peace, justice and well-being which is beyond our human grasp, beyond our powers to bring such a heavenly state into being.  In so many different ways many work to bring about even the least of the challenging changes urged upon us by our Faith and our Hope in our Creator and the will to share his love for us with others.

Faith alone will not save us without good works, we must also have hope and love. Hope must be an active response to hardship driving us to respond with love wherever there is need. Consider for a moment the plight of Gaza, where there has been so much widespread destruction of the infrastructure and such heavy loss of life. In the midst of all the destruction, we see dedicated doctors and nurses, risking their lives, working with minimal medical assets in hospitals which have been all but razed to the ground. We see volunteers struggling to distribute food to people who are starving; churches giving shelter to those who have nowhere else to turn. People in action when it seems that the situation is hopeless. These good men and women are truly angels of hope.

Hope is indeed not just a thought, not just words in a prayer, but a commitment to action, -‘Thy kingdom come’, not at some distant future time but for those in need, now, today, provided by even the smallest acts of giving, of volunteering, working for justice and peace in our troubled communities. Hope must restore faith in the love of God, and light a way out of darkness and despair for so many suffering people all over the world.                              David Peacock