Page 4 - br-sep-2020

September 2020 September 2020

BISHOP’S LETTER CHURCH AND VILLAGE

ACTIVITIES, SOCIETIES, CLUBS, ASSOCIATIONS and CONTACTS
From Bishop Nicholas…

The impact of COVID-19 is changing
us. In many ways, people have Association Contact Tel Address E-mail Meetings/Info
stepped up to look after each other.
Churches have been part of this but
it’s been a much broader Mobile Library Dorset County 01305 dorchestermob Alternate fortnights Car
movement of neighbourly care. We Council 224440 ilelibrary@dorse park
tcc.gov.uk Mondays 9.20- 9.50
have applauded the NHS and care
Fridays 10.50 - 12.15
workers and we have redefined
who are the key workers. The desire Neighbour Car Brenda House 01929 stockleyfarmpa Community run transport
Scheme 471255 rtners@gmail.c option
to look after each other is strong. om
Every organisation has had to change rapidly. Churches have adapted locally Pop in Place Alison Bennett 472023 3 Rye Hill Close popinplace@g Weekly. Drax Hall
BH20 7LU mail.com Monday and Friday
extraordinarily fast. Thank you for all you have done to help. None of us knows if mornings
this is the new normal but at the end of summer it looks as though the winter 10.00 - 12.00
could be long and difficult. This virus is not yet finished with us.
Bere Regis Pre-School 471334 Southbrook preschool@ber Providing care and education
‘Pebbles’ Bere Regis eregis.dorset.sc for children from 2 to 8 years,
We are being tested. The virus is not limited by national boundaries. It is a global BH20 7DB h.uk including breakfast club from
7.45 a.m. and after-school club
pandemic. There have been some key moments and our responses have been until 5 p.m.
revealing. The death of George Floyd in Minneapolis set off an international Rotary Club of David King 01929 Hyde Woods, Hyde david.king@gb
movement that Black Lives Matter. Who are the people we want to celebrate Wareham 471087 Wareham, BH20 7NT pltd.co.uk
www.wareham
and why? We have been too slow re-evaluating the statues populating our rotary.co.uk
public space and frustration boiled over. People want to be dealt with justly and
Salt and Pepper Lunch Brenda House 471255 stockleyfarmpa Monthly, Scout Hut, 3rd
we need to rework our history so that it helps us tell a better story in our own day. Club rtners@gmail.c Thursday. 12.30p.m.
om
For example, there are lessons for us with regard to slavery. Church was part of
the problem and became part of the solution. We were among those who Twinning Association Jackie Ahern 07876 Jackie.ahern@hot Meetings and events
arranged as and when.
577012
mal.co.uk
profited from slavery and claimed it was part of God’s given order. We were also
among those who campaigned for its abolition. In this respect my predecessor
W.I. (Bere Regis) Mrs Dian Pitts 471322 pitts.dian Monthly, Bere Regis Sports
Bishop Burgess (1825-37) was courageous in the late eighteenth century in @gmail.com Club
articulating his opposition to slavery. Nowadays no-one is in favour of slavery and 3rd Wednesday @ 7.30 pm
the Church is among those challenging modern-day slavery. The question for us is
why there was a re-evaluation of the way we understood scripture that changed
our values and the way we acted.
One of my favourite Bible stories is from Matthew 22.15-22 when the religious
leaders tried to trap Jesus with a political question. Is it lawful to pay taxes to the
emperor? Smelling hypocrisy, Jesus asked whose image is on a coin? They
answered the emperor’s. “Give to the emperor the things that are the emperor’s
and to God the things that are God’s.”
It’s a clever and enigmatic response. Whatever it means about God and Caesar,
paying taxes, and the Christian engagement with political life and power, a Jew

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