Oxenhope
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The Outreach magazine is written by people with associations with either the Church or the village. It is produced three times a year and is delivered free to every house in Oxenhope. The majority of Outreach published in Christmas 2000 is replicated below;
The Vicar writes ...
A Soldier's Farewell
A Prayer
Previous issues of Outreach;
Easter 2000
September 2000
Christmas 2000
September 2001
September 2002
Christmas 2002
Easter 2003
Christmas is an enormously popular festival and a great commercial successeven if there aren't enough Play Station 2 consoles to satisfy demand. Many people see the religious element as a sort of icing on the cake and ft's hard not to get the feeling that school nativity plays and special carol services are little more than trips into sentimerrt and nostalgia.
The bible presents the meaning of the Christmas evertts and says categorically, "look, God is In control of history which has a point, a purpose and a dfrectlon" Bishop Roy Williamson wrote, "with the coming of Jesus, God gave us two remarkable insights. In Jesus we see what being a human really means and also what being God really means".
Religious people are sometimes accused of making Cod in their own image. Christmas shows us that God isn't whom we want him to be , or think he ought to be. God Is as he is in Jesus Christ- getting down to our human level and knowing us from the inside, cared for by Mary and Joseph, wetting his nappy, growing up, loving, caring, washing his disciples' feet, "God with us". We believe that not only did he come as a baby in Bethlehem, but that he is always with us In Word and in Sacrament.
Come and experience him in our various Christmas events in our various churches and may you have a very happy Christmas ond something to look forward to in the year ahead.
Bruce Grainger
If you have need of me, oh
England,
In some land across the sea,
Then I'll understand thy stern
command,
and give all I have for thee.
I love the sun, the fresh dewed
morn,
The smell of a new mown field.
And the English sky, where
herons fly,
And the orchard's autumn yield.
I loved all the sounds of the
Lincolnshire day,
And the peacefully silent night,
Yet if I see them no more in
this life,
The in death I must claim my right.
So if my poor body be left to
rot,
In some unknown foreign loam,
I shall ask you dear God that my
soul be set free,
In the green English fields of my home.
Written by Colin Day, dedicated to his father, Frank Day, who served in the Great War during the years 1915/17. In the campaigns; Gallipoli - Egypt - Somme - Arras - Ypres. Discharged wounded 1917. Born Wroot, Lincolnshire, lived 56 years in Halifax.
Today, dear Lord, I'm 90; there's much I
haven't done.
I hope, dear Lord, you'll let me live till I'm 91.
By then, if I'm not finished with all I want to
do,
Would you be kind and let me live until I'm 92?
There are things I want to know about, and, oh
so much to see,
Do you think you could manage, Lord, until I am 93?
The world is changing very fast, and there's
much more in store,
So I'd surely like to be at hand until I'm 94.
And if by then my heart is sound and I am still
alive;
I'd like to live and be around until I'm 95.
There are still so many problems and so much
that needs a "fix",
I'd like to live and be around when I am 96 .
I know dear Lord it's much to ask, and mighty
nice in Heaven,
But I would like to be around until I'm 97.
Perhaps by then I might be slow and know it's
getting late;
But t'would be nice to be your guest when I am 98.
I will have seen so much by then, and had so
grand a time,
That I would be quite willing to settle for 99.
But please extend it to a 100, a whole century
old.
Then, dear Lord, if you want me, I shall do as I am told