‘By my God I leap over walls’ by
Roger Whiteway (October, 2009)
 |
Peggy
Hider chose the above title for her life story. Born in Bermondsey in 1925, she
was the seventh of thirteen children. Although she went to school she learned
little because her mother had to work every day while Peggy often looked after
the younger children. The family was evacuated during the blitz, which wrecked
their house but they returned to
London
before the war ended. When her mother died at forty-five, Peggy was thirteen
and had to look after four younger siblings as well as doing cleaning jobs
accompanied by the four-year-old. Her father was a carpenter and stage manager
and worked away from home a lot. They moved to a council house in Redhill and
Peggy’s father married his late wife’s sister who thereafter ran the house.
When her mother died Peggy was comforted by a woman from the Christian Alliance
of Women and Girls and truly began to believe in Jesus. She wanted to do church
work but was told that with scant education and no money to improve it she had
no chance. She leaped over her first metaphorical wall in obtaining a job at St
Michael’s House,
Oxford
doing domestic work and studying in her spare time. After two years the
principal got her a major scholarship from Surrey Education Department to study
the Bible, the Prayer book and English History. She passed her exams and was
licensed with six others as a parish worker, in Southwark Cathedral.
|
Tooting
Parish
Church
offered her a job teaching in the Sunday school and working with the
Campaigners, a uniformed organization more spiritual than the Girl Guides. She
also visited the elderly and met with them once a week to talk, sing hymns and
drink tea.
After
four years Peggy was asked to move to St James’s,
Clapham
Park
. ‘I took the decision to God in prayer,’ said Peggy, ‘and stayed for two
and a half years’.
‘My
next big move was becoming the cook/caterer in the holiday and conference centre
of the Church’s
Mission
to the Jews on
Mount Carmel
,
Israel
, where Jews and Christians of all nationalities met and studied. I loved it
there, learned some Hebrew, and used to go for walks on the mountainside
marveling at the beauty’. Eventually Peggy fell ill and had to return to
England
.
After
convalescing Peggy found herself as a parish worker in Dalston,
East London
. ‘There were thirty-five thousand parishioners, the church held two thousand
and the choir comprised eighty West Indian boys in
Eton
suits. The building and the outlook were strictly Victorian. I worked with the
children and elderly, many of whom were West Indian but there were also a lot of
Jews with whom I did pastoral work. They invited me to the synagogue, where I
sat in the gallery with the women, then joined in their Sabbath meals and celebrated Passover. The best sermon I ever heard was by
a woman rabbi. Many became Christians while retaining their Jewish traditions
– so called Messianic Jews’.
‘I
worked hard there for ten years and was offered a three month sabbatical in a
place of my choice. I jokingly said “
New Zealand
” and amazingly, the church that had just sold a property offered me £500
towards the trip. Two friends in the
South Island
put me up for the three months and it cost me nothing. I toured both islands,
visited Maori churches and even climbed up glaciers with the aid of an ice
axe.’
Peggy’s
next job was as a parish worker in
Bristol
where she stayed until retirement. During this time she felt the call to be a
deaconess and the Bishop, overcoming some objections, provided her with three months
training and licensed her in Bristol
Cathedral. ‘I felt so privileged. The council gave me a two-bedroom house. I
took services and preached. At that time the priesthood was not an option nor
would I have wanted the administrative responsibility it would have entailed’.
Peggy
retired to Weston Super Mare and worked as a non-stipendiary for five years
before coming to
Stuart Court
. ‘I have a very comfortable flat with a beautiful outlook and a balcony, I
get taken to two council-run clubs every week where I can socialise and play
games, I can walk round the garden here for my exercise and I get fed and looked
after very well. I love St Wilfrid’s and all the children who attend. My only
regret is not having come here earlier, and this is one wall I have no intention
of leaping over!’
The
Interregnum is over (September,
2007 )
September
2007 -
Our new priest and family (Ludger Fremmer) - Licensing Service was on 10th
September 2007
Who
is this new Priest coming to Kibworth with Smeeton Westerby and Saddington?
Those
of you who have met me will have noticed that I am German; I have an English
wife and two children. However, you may wish to know more about this person
coming to live at the Rectory, so here is the ‘low down’ on your new vicar.
I
came to
England
24 years ago, which is just under half my lifetime. I have had several careers:
being a police officer in the German police force; Hotel administration and
management (which led me to come to
England
), which eventually led to a working for Lufthansa German Airlines in
London
.
I
have always believed that God controls every detail of my life, if I allow Him,
and so I am totally convinced that I was meant to come to
England
. I loved my work as IT specialist at Lufthansa, but I had what I would call an
“itch that only God could scratch.”
| I
grew up as a Roman Catholic and do not remember a time when I did not
believe in God. As a teenager I prayed that one day God would lead me to
the right wife, the right job and the right place. When I first came to
England
I did not attend a church, in fact I think I moved quite far away from
God. But one day a leaflet about a Billy Graham Mission came into my
hands. I went to hear Billy speak and I knew that this was what I had been
looking for, and I had not even realised I was looking. I went forward,
re-committed my life to God, and was guided to a local church where I was
nurtured and discipled. I never looked back, and I knew from there on that
God had called me by name and made me his own.
In
that church in Hounslow,
West London
, I met Ruth. We both had a sense that one-day we would like to be in full
time Christian work (she always said she did not want to be a vicar’s
wife and I always said it wasn’t very likely!). When we finally decided
that it was time to explore the opportunities for a full-time ministry, we
were amazed that the Lord guided us so clearly (and rapidly) to
ordination. And so, after studying in
Cambridge
and a curacy in
Norfolk
, here we are. There is no journey that is more exciting and fulfilling
than a journey with God. Even if things get tough at times, and they do,
in the end ‘the joy of the Lord shall be our strength’.
We
have two wonderful sons (we are biased of course), aged 11and 14, both
football mad; with an interest in a ‘wide’ variety of music. In the
past few years our household has increased by one dog, several fish, stick
insects, a hermit crab and two gerbils. We left a garden full of rabbits
and a colony of crows and plans for a chicken house, in
Norfolk
. |
 |
Ruth
too has recently changed her career. She took a leap of faith to change from
banking to teaching and has found her calling.
She qualified as a Primary teacher,
and completed a very successful first
year’s teaching, whilst in
Norfolk
. We hope that she will continue with
her new vocation in the
Leicester
area.
Living
in Leicestershire will be a big change for my family and I, and no doubt, it
will take us some time to ‘find our feet’. Our first priority will be to
make the Rectory our family home and for the boys to settle into their new
schools, find new friends, etc. We would also like to get to know you and
to listen to what the Lord has been doing in Kibworth, Smeeton Westerby and
Saddington over the past years.
My
initial aim is to strengthen and encourage that which is in place so that we can
then move on together into what the Lord has in store for us. I am passionate
about discerning and knowing God’s will for myself and the Church, because to
be in God’s will is always the best place.
Realistically I know that I will not be able to fulfil everybody’s
expectations, however we are all seeking to serve the same Lord and to
please Him and He is faithful to do more than we can ask or imagine.
I
believe that we are called to do the work of God’s kingdom, to call people to
true discipleship of our Lord Jesus Christ. I long to see the church grow in the
knowledge of God and His word, and to be released in the gifts of the Holy
Spirit. I believe that the Lord wants us to be holy and united as his
representatives, the body of Christ. I am hopeful and excited at the prospect of
us making this journey together over the coming years.
Ludger
Fremmer
New
Testament Words:
No. 8 - CHARISMA (October, 2009)
by
Canon Desmond V Treanor
If
you are interested, there is an archive of Desmond's articles on Apostles - click
here or Christians - click here or St Paul
- click here
‘Charisma’
is easy to spot but difficult to define. It is often hard to say what it is
about a particular person that makes him or her ‘charismatic’. The fact is
that both in secular and religious contexts the word is used in a variety of
ways.
Many
universally acclaimed people such as Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, John F.
Kennedy, Princess Diana and Billy Graham were regarded as being
‘charismatic’, for one reason or another. Although it is common enough
today, originally the use of this classical Greek word was rare. In the New
Testament it is only found in the letters and most of the seventeen occurrences
are in Paul who uses it to mean the free
gift of God, a gift involving grace.
In
his day charisma sometimes meant ‘a
bonus’. This is certainly what soldiers called the free gift of money, over
and above the pay that they had earned, which they might receive at the end of a
successful campaign if they were lucky and the emperor was feeling generous.
With
this in mind Paul tells the Christians in Rome that the
wages of sin is death – that is what
we have all ‘earned’ and deserve -
but the gift of God – the charisma - is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord
(Rom.6.23).
Membership
of the Church is dependent on the gift of God’s Holy Spirit for Oly
SpiritH no one can say, “Jesus is Lord” except by the Holy Spirit (1 Cor.
12. 3)
By
the grace given to him, Paul urged every reader not
to think of himself more highly than he ought to think (Rom 12.3) but to
realise that we have different gifts (charismata)
according to the grace (charis)
given to us (Rom. 12.6). In the
saint’s list of these gifts he mentions prophecy, teaching, exhortation,
giving, ruling and showing mercy but elsewhere (in 1 Cor. 12. 8 – 10) he
offers an even longer list which includes gifts of healing and of speaking in
tongues (glossalalia). Earnestly desire the higher gifts (1 Cor. 12.31).
In
the last half century the charismatic movement, which began in
America
, has spread rapidly in many different parts of the Roman Catholic, Anglican and
Free
Churches
. It has
encouraged local ecumenism and, in focusing on the love and power of God, it has
brought renewal to Christian praise, evangelism and healing.
In
1994 a new chapter of this charismatic revival began with what is now known as
the ‘
Toronto
blessing’. Evangelical preaching invariably accompanies manifestations of the
renewal and there may even be holy laughter, falling down and barking in the
context of healings. These together with prophecy and speaking in tongues are
some of the dramatic and controversial effects of the movement which continues
to spread widely on both sides of the
Atlantic
.
In
this country, Holy Trinity, Brompton, which originated the hugely influential Alpha
course, was one of the early centres of this revival.
PARISH
MAGAZINE
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