Special Church News

Where was God in the Haitian earthquake?

I guess we have all been moved by the images and stories of suffering that we have seen
from Haiti. Natural disasters of this kind raise many difficult questions for us, especially
when we think of God as compassionate and all-powerful. How can we reconcile these
events with a loving God?
Next Sunday we will have an opportunity to think and discuss about this at St Nicholas’,
Fyfield. Revd Gill MacKichan will be presiding at the 8.00am (BCP) Eucharist following her
short break from ministry during January. It would be wonderful to see many of you there to
support and encourage her. I will be preaching on the issue of ‘why bad things happen to
good people’ and drawing upon the tragedy in Haiti.
Afterwards, over coffee and a light breakfast, we’ll reflect and chat about this issue in small,
informal groups and try to learn together. We will be finished by 9.15am at the latest.
We will take up a special retiring collection after that breakfast for charities working to
relieve suffering in Haiti.
I do hope you will make the effort to join with us next Sunday.

Canon Keith Lamdin.
 

Lent Course 2010 – Loving our World
Our Lent course for this year focuses on what it means to be disciples in a world where our
current consumption is unsustainable, out of balance and devastating our environment.
We propose to meet in homes throughout the Benefice – most probably in Broad Hinton,
Avebury and West Overton, together with one or two day-time groups to consider the
environment and how we can practically respond as disciples to the issues we all face.
Each session will last about 1¼ hours and the types of issues we will be discussing are as
follows:
• Rubbish & Waste
• Shopping & Food
• Energy in the Home
• Travel
• Water Each session will involve a variety of elements: discussion of the topic, prayer and reflection,
a simple activity and will end with individuals thinking through how they can take some
simple practical steps to live differently in response to what we have studied.
To help us plan the venues and produce the right amount of course materials we really need
people to ‘sign up’ for the course. If you want to attend (or even just try the first one as a
taster session) can you please contact the Benefice Office and let them have the following
details:
Your name, address and telephone details.
Your preferred venue (Broad Hinton, Avebury, West Overton, Other)
Your preferred evening or day of the week.
Whether you need transport.

To co-ordinate this so that we can get through the sessions in Lent, we need your responses
no later than Shrove Tuesday (Pancake Day) – 16th
February 2010.

Based on the responses we will create groups and start our Lent Course shortly thereafter.

I hope many of you will take this opportunity to engage on this very important issue as we
journey through Lent.

Revd Paul Bradish