A message from the Rector.

This Months Message         Dear Friends   Some Sundays ago, I was preaching at the Parish Church at Slaugham and Dr Rob Morris was leading the service while our rector Gary was with K4C (Kids For Christ) at All Saints, Handcross. I was struck by some words Rob said to conclude the service at Slaugham: “Remember and experience the unique message of Christianity - forgiveness.” Forgiveness is a word we don’t very often hear these days. It is linked with right and wrong, sin, justice and punishment. Those are relevant words to much that has been in the news in recent weeks: Saddam Hussein a prisoner in the dock - should he be punished? How? Or spared? How should justice be done? And then Ian Huntley - what is justice for such a terrible crime? And the police chief of the Humberside force - was it right to suspend, or should he have had an opportunity to put things right in the future? Many of these are hard questions to answer and we may say they are extreme cases. When we are wronged, is revenge a just and understandable reaction: tit for tat? As the Old Testament says: “An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth” - not two teeth, but one for one. Forgiveness? The unique message of Christianity. I wonder if you remember the astonishing story of Gordon Wilson in Northern Ireland some years ago? His daughter was killed in a horrific bomb outrage at a Remembrance Day Service - and later Gordon said he forgave the IRA killers. How could he say such a thing? It came from his deeply held Christian faith. Forgiveness of others stems from an experience of being forgiven ourselves. That is why the cross is the symbol at the centre of the Christian faith - because the cross is where Jesus Christ died to take the punishment for sin and make forgiveness possible: for each of us. The offer of free, undeserved, full forgiveness for anyone who turns away from sin and believes in Jesus. Of course Saddam Hussein and Ian Huntley must be punished for terrible crimes and evil - but let us not forget that all of us have done wrong in many ways. Conscience is God’s gift to each of us to make us aware of what is wrong in our own lives - but we can pay no attention to it, until it hardly functions at all. Beware! It was a good prayer (the Lord’s Prayer) which Jesus taught his followers to pray: “forgive us our sins, as we forgive those who sin against us.” Kenneth Habershon