You are invited to a special service at St James on 5 January at 10.45 am! Our Village United Service on the first Sunday of January is becoming something of a tradition. It is good to get together at the start of a new year, as a united community, to dedicate our lives in God’s service, for the coming year. This service incorporates the Methodist Covenant Service. This year will be special because the new Millennium Window in the Lady Chapel, will also be dedicated. We shall be welcoming the new Dean of Chester, the Very Revd Dr Gordon McPhate, who will preach at the service and join the Revd Graham Evans in dedicating the window. There will be a chance to meet informally for refreshments after the service. The reaction to our new Millennium Window has been overwhelmingly positive and I believe it is a very fitting and worthy enhancement to our Parish Church, which will remain as a tribute to mark the end of the second millennium and the dawn of the third.
To dedicate the Millennium Window means to set it aside for the glory of God, in its own particular place, within the setting of our Parish Church of St James. It is, in itself, an illustration of the dedication of so many lives throughout the last millennium. The different figures are representative of the people of Christleton over 1,000 years, who responded to Christ’s invitation: “Come unto me”, and found in that response both comfort and conviction. As we come to dedicate our Millennium Window I pray that may be a symbol of our response to Christ’s invitation and that we, too, may find in that response, both comfort and conviction, to set our lives aside, to be used by God in building his Kingdom.
Just as the window fits precisely into its setting in the Lady Chapel, so we each have a particular part and place to fit into the Church. 1 Peter tells us: “Come, and let yourselves be built as living stones into a spiritual temple.” How fitting it is that the window depicts both St James and Christleton Methodist Church, side by side, with the title “Churches Together in Christleton”. Not only is the dedication service a United Village event but January also sees the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. You will find details of our United Prayers each day from 18-25 January, and the United Village Coffee Morning. This year the United Service for the whole of Churches Together in Chester will be held at St James on Thursday 23rd at 7.30 pm. Jesus prayed that his Church might be one, that the world might believe. So our dedication should bring us together, as we each, and all, come unto him, so that we may worship and witness more effectively as the Body of Christ, each with our own particular function to perform, but all responding to Christ, who is the head.
Bill Davies, who designed, created and installed our window wrote:- “Its some job, creating the light which will shine through Jesus for hundreds of years.” At Christmas we heard again the wonderful words of John’s Prologue:- “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people … the light shines in the darkness and the darkness will never overcome it.” The light and compassion of Jesus will continue to draw all people throughout this millennium, but if our Millennium Window is to remain there as symbol of that, obviously we need to safeguard the fabric of the Church building. There has already been a very encouraging response to our Restoration Appeal, and do visit the Christleton website (www.christleton.org.uk) for regular updates. So I look forward with confidence that we shall, in 2003, be able to proceed with the restoration of the Church, as another sign of the dedication of our lives to God.
Part of our dedication must be to introduce the next generation to Jesus, that they, too, may respond to his call. The Christingle Service on 12 January is always a beautiful illustration of the wonder and enthusiasm of children’s response, as the light of the Christingle candles reflects in their faces, against the darkness of the Church. We are also giving a special invitation to all young people to the Evening Communion on 26 January.
May the Dedication of our Millennium Window truly be a symbol of the dedication of our lives, in response to Jesus’ invitation to come unto him, throughout 2003. A happy new year to you all.
Yours sincerely
Peter Lee
