It is a very strange feeling beginning to write my last magazine\u00a0\u00a0 letter here in Stanley.\u00a0 I am grateful for the many messages of encouragement about the opportunities in retirement.\u00a0 Time to visit family and friends and do the things that full time work makes impossible.\u00a0 Never the less there is also a real sense of loss too.\u00a0 Being a vicar is an extraordinary privilege.\u00a0 One has an opportunity to come alongside people and families at the most significant times in their lives.\u00a0 It has been wonderful to see God at work as we have prayed and struggled together over the years.\u00a0 I will miss the community that we have become so much part of.\u00a0 Thank you to all those who been part of our journey together<\/p>\n
One of the most disturbing aspects of the world around us is the prevalence of violence; whether it is the suicide bomber or a school massacre.\u00a0 Even in many films and cartoons there is a theme of violence that in the end wins the day.\u00a0 There are \u2019good\u2019 guys that win and \u2019bad\u2019 guys that need to be destroyed.\u00a0 A Theologian called Walter Wink has written of the \u2018myth of redemptive violence\u2019, that is the idea that violence saves.\u00a0 So for some people the answer to school massacres is more guns in school with teachers being armed.\u00a0 There is the terrible image of gun fights in crowded class rooms.\u00a0 Wink traces this idea back to the Babylonian creation story, that tells of a violent battle between gods, that leaves some victorious and dominant.\u00a0 In contrast to this, Genesis tells of a\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 creation that is made out of love and made well.\u00a0 In the beginning a place of Peace and beauty, though it is then messed up.<\/p>\n
In the story of Jesus we have a stark contrast to the idea that victory comes from violence.\u00a0 At Easter we remember that Jesus chose to use his power not to bring violent victory, but to choose powerlessness and allowed himself to be killed.\u00a0 His saving act was then vindicated by his resurrection.\u00a0 So when Jesus challenges us to take up our cross and follow him, he is calling us away from a reliance on violence to a radical response to conflict that is non violent and that seeks to build relationships with each other rather than fight.<\/p>\n
This is difficult but has a deep logic.\u00a0 Violence begets violence, and it is easy to see the danger of a never ending cycle of tit-for-tat that continues to escalate.\u00a0 By contrast, a response that creates a relationship of trust and a growing understanding can result in genuine peace.\u00a0 We can see that \u2019evil\u2019 is just as much part of us as our enemy.\u00a0 My prayer for our community and our world is that we can follow Jesus in this way of Peace.<\/p>\n
Rev Bill Henderson<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It is a very strange feeling beginning to write my last magazine\u00a0\u00a0 letter here in Stanley.\u00a0 I am grateful for the many messages of encouragement about the opportunities in retirement.\u00a0 Time to visit family and friends and do the things that full time work makes impossible.\u00a0 Never the less there is also a real sense […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":144,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"Phone_number(s)":"","email_address":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[3,35],"tags":[17],"class_list":["post-991","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letters","category-more-pages","tag-featured"],"mb":[],"mfb_rest_fields":["title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=991"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":992,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/991\/revisions\/992"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=991"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=991"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nwbchurches.org.uk\/stanley\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=991"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}