VICAR'S LETTER
17
Sundon Road
Streatley
July, 2006
Dear
All
During June and the early part of July, one of the chests in the cross-aisle will go missing. It will have gone to Sunday School to become a treasure chest. From that chest, week by week we shall pull out one of the treasures of the church.
The first treasure to come out will be some of the church plate. It comes first because, though not in itself of any great value, it looks like treasure. Out may come also some of the church vestments, especially those that contain real gold thread. The children will do drawings of some of these treasures, taking advantage of the opportunity offered to deploy shed-loads of glitter.
The second treasure to emerge will be a model of the church. It speaks of the treasure we have in our buildings. We have the modern and flexible Parish Centre. We have the building that is our spiritual home - the church. Pictures of the church will be coloured. The senior class, guided by the School's resident artist, will go out to sketch the Centre.
The third treasure to emerge will be the Registers. These speak of all the good people who down the centuries have served God in this place. We will go to work to produce pictures of people in all the different costumes that have been worn in church since its beginning.
The fourth treasure will be some of the old (16th century) Bibles. They are treasures by virtue of their age (though again of no great monetary value). They are treasures even more by virtue of their contents. Time for multi-media pictures of favourite Bible stories.
By now a great deal of material will have been accumulated. It is time now to put it all together. Initial calculations suggest that this will need a circle 10 feet (3 metres) in diameter divided into five concentric circles. In the outer four circles will go the material so far completed. In the centre will go our greatest treasure of all, the figure of Christ. (This Sunday will correspond with the Sunday School Open Day. Parents of potential pupils cannot leave saying that they have not been warned about the kind of things Sunday School gets up to.)
That leaves one more Sunday - the Sunday School Prizegiving. Somehow this 10 foot (3m.) circle has to be transported to church and hung from the screen. During this service its final element will be added. Part of the people circle has been left blank. Into that space we now insert the church's latest treasure, pictures of the children themselves.
Hopefully the project will be something the children will enjoy. It also does the rest of us no harm to do the occasional stocktake, such as this is, and to realise once again just how blessed as a community we are.
All best wishes,
Roger
Note to Sunday School staff:
The Closing Date for Resignations was two weeks before this article appears.