Letter from Jackie Hird
Licensed Lay Minister at Otley Parish Church

Recently I have become interested in the Enneagram and was able to attend a day’s workshop looking at it from a Christian perspective. If you haven’t heard of it, the Enneagram is a tool to help you understand your personality. Other tools are available! What attracted me was that as well as helping you to understand more about your personality, it gives insight into how you are likely to behave when living your best life and conversely what may be your downfalls at times of stress. It focuses on helping you on a journey of transformation.

That’s a theme we have been learning a lot about in church recently. Our series on “The Good and Beautiful God” and The “Good and Beautiful Life” have been about helping us, as disciples of Jesus, become more like Him. Following Jesus takes us on a journey of spiritual transformation. We have been introduced to a word that has fallen out of fashion – Sanctification – being set apart for a special purpose, being Holy. I am sure this is something most of us want.

However, you being transformed and becoming holy, will look different from me and from your best friend and from Aaron. I wonder, if like me, you ever look at another Christian and think, “if only I was like them”? Aspiring to follow good examples is fine, but thinking I can be just like them when my personality is completely different will never work. What I need to be is transformed into the best version of me, not someone else.

Of course, we do not all have to have a Myers-Briggs Profile or know which Enneagram number we are, but understanding ourselves and appreciating who God has made us to be is necessary if we want to grow and develop and progress on our spiritual transformation. We are all, “Fearfully and wonderfully made” (Psalm139 verse 14). We are all made in the image of God; all unique, special and loved by our Heavenly Father. You may be meek and mild and gentle. You may be loud and boisterous and challenging. You may be brimming with confidence or be fearful and hesitant. God made you and loves you and will not change you into someone else. But he can help you be the best version of you.

I recently heard the process of sanctification described in this way: a skilled artist painted a beautiful picture, a masterpiece of dazzling beauty. It was hung on a gallery wall and was admired. Over time the picture collected dust, then grease and grime. The sunlight damaged it and it got a tear in the corner of the canvas. Those who saw it still thought it lovely. One day a restorer took it down and started work. She painstakingly stripped away the layers of dirt and repaired the damage and revealed its original beauty. People gasped when they saw its beauty, saw the picture as the artist had intended it to be. They had always thought it beautiful but now, wow!

I expect the removal of my dirt and grease and the repair of my tears will be painful but worth it to reveal what I was created to be. Maybe I am a Monet, you might be a Van Gough or a Picasso. We are definitely not all the same, but we are equally precious.

Letter From Tom Raper – Churchwarden of Otley Parish Church

After a few months of being Churchwarden I am very grateful for your kind comments and messages of support. I feel proud to serve Otley Parish Church that is at the heart of Otley; the building and worshipping community are a visible presence of Christian faith. The church is also an important venue for community events.

Aaron has now been with us for a year, and the focus of his leadership being – Discipleship, Youth Engagement, and Mission and Community. As a congregation we are in full support of these.

Holding events in the church is part of ‘Mission and Community’, reminding us that we are a “Missional Community”. What’s that, you ask? It’s a group of Christians who form community with a particular missionary purpose. I believe all the congregation at Otley Parish Church are “Missionaries” and as such, a Missional Community. We communicate the news of Jesus to people who may not have yet heard or accepted it. What’s this got to do with events at our church?  Well, bringing people into church for events is a gateway towards reaching people.

Otley Parish Church hosts many events such as the Christmas Tree Festival, Otley Music Festival and the Otley Folk Festival. I was shocked and surprised in September to find that there was no team to help set up for the Folk Festival. After some panic we managed to get a few people together to set up the stage and screen. It was a very close shave, but the ‘team’ just consisted of the Churchwardens, the Churchwarden’s wife, and a retired Minister!

To hold events successfully we need to have a team to call upon to set things up (and to take things down afterwards). Our building has great acoustics, good sound and lighting systems. It’s a real asset for the town and using it for events places us very much in the heart of the community, enabling us to demonstrate Jesus’ love for all. WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Any able members of the congregation are very welcome to become members of an ‘Events Team’. As a Churchwarden I am willing to lead this but cannot do it alone, I need your help. Please let me, Kevin or Aaron know if you can help. The work mainly involves setting up the stage and screen and moving chairs etc. There are about half a dozen events in a year which isn’t too great a commitment. The next main events are, the Christmas Tree Festival in early December and the Coffee Festival 2024 in late April.

On a different subject, soon after I became Churchwarden I attended, with Aaron, a meeting at Pudsey Parish Church on ‘Leading Your Church into Growth’. It was about how large churches, like ours, are generally finding it harder to grow congregations after the 2020 lockdown. It considered what ‘church’ is and how the way we worship can encourage new people to come. I think OPC has come through the lockdown very well and bucked the trend of falling attendances. Our congregation is growing.

I would like to share with you something from the meeting at Pudsey Parish Church:

• God loves to grow things
• God brings the growth
• God chooses to work in partnership with us
• God can do miracles with our Church
• God Loves the Church
• God loves it when we pray
• I AM CONVINCED God wants me to grow his Church
• The Church makes disciples – this is our core business

I am sure that as a “Missional Community” our church growth has been nourished since the lockdown. God will grow our church through Discipleship, Mission, and Community, with a focus on children and young people. I am looking forward to working with you all.

Letter from Aaron Kennedy – Vicar of Otley Parish Church

As I left church a couple of weeks ago on Sunday 17th September, I had no idea that, sadly, my uncle Hugh had just died. I found out later that afternoon. He had been feeding the cat when he suffered a fatal heart attack. In Northern Ireland there is a strong tradition of a 3 working day turn around on funerals, so it was on the Wednesday morning that I was on a flight to Belfast – back in time that evening to put the kids to bed! It was, as these things go, a very good funeral, replete with the now rare tradition of gathering at the home of the deceased to comfort the family, show support, view the open coffin, and bear it to the church – in this case, teams of us carried it half of the 1¼ miles to the church, but the great crowd of friends and family walked the
whole way there – thankfully in blazing sun.

I take funerals fairly regularly, but it’s different when it’s your own family. Of course, I wasn’t leading the service, but more than that, there were so many memories to reflect on. When any funeral is led well – as it was by Rev. Bill, something of the true character of the person really comes to the fore. There should be a sense that those who were there could say, “yes, that’s the man I knew”, and were able to say goodbye – to process their grief healthily.

It made me wonder, when all is said and done, and when I’m no longer there to believe my own version of the story of my life, nor to defend

myself, what will the story of my life be? What kind of person will they say I was? We must avoid the trap of navel gazing, but I think it serves us well to consider what kind of person God is calling us to be, and whether the choices we are making now reflect that. Inevitably, if you’re anything like me you can think of a few things you really wish weren’t part of your character, perhaps qualities, or patterns of behaviour, that you know don’t honour God.

Paul calls us, in view of God’s mercy towards us, not to be conformed to the pattern of the world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds (Romans 2). He assumes that it is possible to change – that stubborn character traits can, by the grace of God, and with some practical know how, be changed for the good. Earlier this year we worked our way through The Good and Beautiful God, by James Bryan Smith; I know from the feedback I received that many found this a worthwhile focus for our Sunday preaching, house group and personal study.

We will pick up this theme again with the second of the quartet of books James Bryan Smith has written – The Good and Beautiful Life. This is a book that very much picks up from where the first book left off by diving right into Jesus’ sermon on the mount and looking at how Jesus would have us live. Smith follows the same kind of format as in the first book, by posing a false belief that we often fall into, and then countering that with life giving words of truth from Jesus. Together we will be looking at how a false understanding of what happiness looks like, and how it can be achieved, results in traits like anger, lust, worry, and judgementalism, taking a foothold in our lives.

We don’t have to live like this. Jesus invites into a more abundant life, and I look forward to us exploring this together in the months to come. If you would like to buy the book, please feel free, although don’t feel obliged. There will be some free copies available at the back of church for anyone who would like one.

 

Letter From Kevin Keefe – Churchwarden of Otley Parish Church

I was walking through our churchyard recently and noticed again the sign attached to the gates saying, ‘Take Care, Path Can Be Slippery’. As I walked along, it occurred to me that this could be a metaphor for life in general and the thought popped into my mind that perhaps we should have added some catchy evangelistic second line that would attract people’s attention and encourage them to think that OPC would be a great place to visit. You know the sort of thing that you see outside some churches: ‘CH__CH – What’s missing? – UR’ or even worse: ‘Sinners Wanted, Apply Within’.

Perhaps our sign on the gate should read: ‘Take Care, Path Can Be Slippery – But Walk With The Lord And You Will Be Eternally Safe’ or ‘Trust God And He Will Guide Your Steps’. Of course, if people joined us only on this basis and then found the path was still slippery enough to make them fall over, it might make them think twice about the rest of what we believe!

Some people are attracted to take a look at our church fellowship because of what they see from the outside – maybe on noticeboards, Facebook, Twitter (X), etc. Some visit us because they already know people who are part of our church community. Whatever the reason for that first visit, most say that they returned because of the friendly welcome they received. This is a wonderful way in which the people of OPC show God’s love in action to those who visit. But the people who make it into the building this way are only part of the story – we are commissioned to go out into the world and tell people the good news about Jesus.

We may each be welcoming to one or two new people on a Sunday morning but just think about the huge number of people whom we collectively meet during our normal daily lives. If we interact with them sufficiently, they may decide that we are a good and decent person. This is fine but if that’s as far as it goes and people don’t know that we believe in Jesus, then how does that attract people to want to know more about God?

I’m not suggesting we should pounce on the checkout operator at Sainsbury’s and attempt a full presentation of the gospel as we pack our groceries – that’s definitely not my style! But I did get thinking about how we do actually engage with people, how we gain their attention and earn the opportunity to share our faith with them. It may just be a few simple words of blessing or offering to pray for a stranger who seems to be struggling. Just a few words that show that for us there is a God who is within and beyond the daily grind.

This year we’ve learned how transformative a relationship with our good and beautiful God can be and how we must live ‘apart for God’ in this world – freed from pressure to conform to the standards of ‘influencers’ and others who want us to follow their ways for whatever reasons. Instead, we are to live by God’s rules and standards in His ‘now’ Kingdom.

Going back to the slippery path. Of course, as we grow in the knowledge of God’s love and grace and continue our walk-through life with Him, we learn that the path really can be slippery and we really can fall. But through God’s love and grace and by the power of His Holy Spirit, we find the strength to get up again and carry on – again and again. Who wouldn’t want to tell people about all this?

As we move from summer into autumn our thoughts will (dare I say it!) begin to contemplate another Christmas season. We have a perfect opportunity ahead to talk to people about what we believe. Perhaps before you go out each day just ask God to give you the opportunity and the courage to let someone know what Jesus means to you – and for the Holy Spirit to give you the right words to say.

Letter from Aaron Kennedy – Vicar of Otley Parish Church

Many of you will have heard me mention in church that the PCC have recently appointed a part-time youth worker through the Leeds-based Christian youth work agency, Missional Generation (MG). Ben Jones, the director of MG, has been a fantastic guide through the process, and we are pleased that Maria O’Hagan will be joining us from the middle of July.

Maria has most recently been a Children & Youth Intern at St George’s Church, Leeds, and is a graduate of the University of Leeds with a degree in Music and Mathematics. As a part-time youth worker we will not see her every week, but she will be contributing to the life of OPC at strategic times that best support the development of our youth and children’s ministry. She will support both our Sunday Club team, and our 7UP Youth Group team, and we hope she will also spend time working alongside Mark Atkins at Prince Henry’s Grammar School.

Please pray for Maria as she transitions roles in the next month and moves house. Please also pray that she can find an affordable car for her commute from Leeds.

Here now is a message from Maria:-

Hello! 

I’m so excited to be starting at Otley Parish church as a Missional Generation youth worker. It will be great to get to know the children and young people (and their families), and to learn how best I can support, disciple and mentor them in their relationship with Jesus.

It will also be wonderful to get to know the rest of the church community and the volunteers currently involved in supporting the youth work. I want to hear about your ideas and dreams for the young people. I’m also excited to bring some of my own ideas, as well as chat to the young people about what they’d like to learn and how they would most like to be supported in their discipleship.

A bit about me. I’ve spent the last three years doing youth work and, in the last year, I’ve been a full-time intern doing children’s and youth work at St George’s, Leeds. I’ve learned a lot about how best to connect with children and young people of different ages, and how to help them to grow; that it is crucial to listen to their questions and their concerns and to be able to journey with them in school life and in church life.

But I’m also so aware that a new youth group brings so many different ideas, as different people and characters come together. And this brings so much more excitement, and it makes me really excited to get going and to get to know you all!

I am really passionate about musical worship as well and want to encourage any young people who are interested in this too. I have led worship quite a lot and I play the piano and harp. I would enjoy the opportunity to encourage children and young people in musical skills!

I’m also very keen that our youth group is a really growing, exciting place to be, where young people from unchurched backgrounds are excited to come, and where they will find friends and be able to journey alongside disciples of Jesus. That kind of environment can really help to deepen their relationship with God and tackle any difficult questions they may have.

And it is a priority for me to enable youth work volunteers in the church to feel really confident going into lead youth work. I want to help build the team and to support them in the best way possible as well.

I’m really looking forward to meeting you all!

Maria

Letter From Barry Milner – Churchwarden of Otley Parish Church 

As I was leaving church in the late afternoon one day a few weeks ago, the peace of a spring day was shattered by the roar of a jet engine. Looking up, I saw a low flying military jet crossing over the town.

As I walked on, I mused that although I had been startled by the unusual loud noise I hadn’t been terrified, I hadn’t felt the need to hide, to find the nearest safe shelter.

What must it be like to live in a country where a plane going overhead would be a terrifying experience, or perhaps worse, to live somewhere where the noise of military hardware had become commonplace?

Let us give thanks to the Lord that we live in a peaceful democracy where despite political differences we do not resort to strength of arms.

As I walked home thinking of all the war-torn countries in the world: Ukraine, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen – a seemingly endless list – I felt powerless in the face of such inhumanity.

I thought of Jerusalem, a disputed place for centuries where violence is again breaking out in a city claimed by many religions to be a sacred place. The endless cycle of retaliation continues in what seems the most intractable conflict on earth.

I feel certain that most people living with conflict want peace, just the ability to get on with their normal lives, go to work, educate their children, practise their religion freely. But again and again lives are turned upside down by the actions of a few who believe violence is the only means to their ends.

As a Christian, what could I do in the face of all this terror and injustice?

I could lobby my MP, write to the papers, go on Twitter… or maybe I could pray!

Jesus spoke of ‘turning the other cheek’ and ‘my peace I leave with you; my peace I give you’.

In the book of Isaiah is the verse ‘They shall beat their swords into ploughshares and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore’.

The esteemed Russian sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich produced a bronze sculpture entitled ‘Let Us Beat Swords into Ploughshares’ depicting the figure of a man holding a hammer aloft in one hand and a sword in the other, hammering the sword into a tool to till the land. In 1959 he was given the award ‘People’s Artist of the USSR’ and the sculpture was gifted to the United Nations. If only the current Russian regime would follow this creed.

Through the period from Ascension Day to Pentecost we have been taking part in the ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ prayer initiative. Our building is always open as a place for prayer but during this period we joined together with churches of all denominations to pray to the Lord. To all dictators and despots around the world the message is not ‘your kingdom come’ but ‘Thy Kingdom Come’ – a King who came to serve, not to be served.

We are entering a time of change in our church life as Aaron guides us to develop youth work, pastoral work, community links, improved discipleship, and more inclusivity. So, let us all pray for discernment and guidance, for His will to be done.

Letter from Aaron Kennedy – Vicar of Otley Parish Church

All of us have a different relationship with the monarchy, and there is a wide spectrum of views, and that’s OK. But as Christians this is a moment in our national life – whether you are dyed in the wool lover of the monarchy, a republican anti-royalist, or something in between – to pray for the United Kingdom; for God’s blessing on us, and for wisdom for the King in his new reign.

The coronation itself is also a moment where the somewhat wobbly relationship between church and state really comes to the fore. The King will be crowned at Westminster Abbey as part of a service of Holy Communion. While the establishment of the Church of England is also for some a divisive issue, for Christians this event undoubtedly represents a precious and not-to-be scorned opportunity to preach the Good News, pray for all who witness it, and for the future of our nation. This is not a Christian country. It never was, in my view. It was partially Christianised, at best. But whether or not you can agree with me onthat, we must all agree that the influence of Christian faith in public life is waning.

So many divisions! And yet, at the heart of the service of Holy Communion we have a coming together. A comm-unity in and through the person of Jesus Christ. In Jesus the world sees the vast and wonderful love of God; before Jesus we acknowledge his holiness, his breath-taking goodness, and our sin; and through Jesus we are reconciled to God, and one another. The words “Though we are many we are one body, because we all share in one bread” encapsulate this reality perfectly.

And this, of course, is the kind of King that Jesus is. It is the nature of earthly Kings to lord it over those they rule, but it is not so with Jesus (despite his being the Lord of all), and it is not to be so with his followers. Jesus is enthroned on the cross. On the cross he is revealed in all his strange and wonderful majesty: the Creator of the world, who defeats death and sin and opens the way for all people to re-enter the garden of God’s holy presence… hangs dead, beaten and bloodied and naked for the love of us. Let us pray, whether we like the monarchy or not, that King Charles III will be this kind of King. That he will love and serve with self-sacrifice and love – as all Christians are called to do.

And let’s also pray for this wonderful country we live in. As Christians we should celebrate the reign of Elizabeth II, and her quiet, faithful Christian witness over so many years. I don’t think we can fully appreciate the positive influence she had on us (imperfect though she was); let us pray that King Charles may have absorbed more of her way of life and faith than we may guess. Our national life, while deeply blessed and privileged, is nonetheless at times fraught with division and injustice. And as Christians, while giving thanks for all that is good, we should always be calling politicians to the standard of the highest law of love.

Letter from Jackie Hird
Licensed Lay Minister at Otley Parish Church

Those of us attending Church in person were recently set the challenge of learning some new names. You get a gold star if you learnt 5, silver for 3 and bronze for 1. The challenge came from the realisation that we have had the joy of lots of new folk join us at OPC recently and wanted to get to know each other better.

If you are one of those who are new to OPC then on behalf of the church, WELCOME. We hope you quickly feel at home here. We hope we can help you on your faith journey. If you wouldn’t class yourself as a follower of Jesus, we would love to explore things with you. If you are someone who would describe themselves as a Christian, you may have noticed we are taking seriously Jesus’ instruction to “make Disciples”. We don’t want to just call ourselves Christian we want to help we each other follow Jesus, orientating our lives around what he taught and how he lived. That involves some training rather than just trying hard and hoping for the best.

So much of being a disciple is much more than what I personally believe or do. It is also about my relationship with others and how I treat them. We regularly say the greatest commandment in our services. “Love the Lord your God…AND love your neighbour as yourself.” Discipleship is not just about the first part but the second part too.

We are proud of the welcome we give at OPC and see it as part of loving our neighbour. The commandment includes our Church family neighbours! We start with a warm greeting as you arrive and some quality coffee after the service. But real welcome, real loving, means appreciating that we are all different, and have different preferences and needs. It means including all, not just tolerating all. It means seeing all as made in God’s image, loved equally by God.

A church of disciples, learning to be more like Jesus will be full of warmth and acceptance. It will feel safe to share our joys and success but also our pains and disappointments and even our doubts. It will be a place of freedom from masks or pretence and will be a place of honesty, a place to come when you feel you are succeeding at life and a place to run to when you have crawled through the week on your knees, and a place where children will be cherished and appreciated and included whatever their age or stage, personality, or additional needs.

The church isn’t “them over there” or the super spiritual or even the Vicar. It’s us! All of us. We are all responsible for making and maintaining a “love your neighbour “kind of church. That can be as simple as being aware who is on their own and sitting with them. Or looking for someone who may need a warm greeting and a genuine “How are things going for you?”. It might even be thinking a minute before we jump to make judgements about other people, adults, and children.

If there is something that is a barrier to you feeling at home with us, please speak to one of the leaders and together we can try to find a solution. You are not on your own.

At OPC we want there to be a place for everyone, with Christ at the centre. As we grow as disciples, increasingly putting Christ at the centre of our lives, we will tangibly feel the reality of there being a place where everyone feels welcome.