Welcome to Weobley & Staunton Joint Benefice

In Luke chapter 21 Jesus warns his disciples of coming calamity: “Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes, and in various places famines and plagues...  But before all this occurs, they will arrest you and persecute you; they will hand you over to synagogues and prisons, and you will be brought before kings and governors because of my name.”

This prophecy served to warn of the persecution to come for the early church. In the 21st century, Christians are still persecuted around the globe. The organisation ‘Open Doors’ conducts an annual report of the persecution of Christians, and this was recently presented to the UK Parliament.* It makes sobering reading:

More than 380 million Christians live in situations subject to “high levels of persecution and discrimination”.

1 in 7 Christians worldwide live in situations with at least “high” levels of persecution and discrimination, including 1 in 5 in Africa and 1 in 7 in Asia.

4,476 Christians were killed for faith-related reasons in 2024. Seventy percent of those killed were in Nigeria, where attacks on Christians have become more common since 2020.

Clearly, we need to keep praying for our brothers and sisters facing such hostility. We also need to pressure our MPs and government to keep this issue in the spotlight, rather than sweeping it to the margins. 

On a positive note, two churches In Mosul (Iraq) were reopened last month, eight years after they were destroyed by the extremist group ISIS. We pray that the congregations of the Syrian Orthodox Church in Mar Toma and the Chaldean Catholic Church will flourish and worship in freedom.

*Source https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/cdp-2025-0076/

Rev'd Philip

On the way back from Australia, we stopped for 3 nights in Kuala Lumpur (our first time in Malaysia). We booked a tour with a guide to see local sites. Our guide was an Indian Malay man named Raji. He spoke non-stop for much of the day about his life, Malaysian politics and Hindu faith. Included in our tour was Batu Temple Cave, a local Hindu shrine. Before we ascended the 272 steps to the top, he assured us that our families would be blessed by the god Murugan whose statue is within the cave. We ascended in 31-degree heat, pestered by hungry monkeys and dodging descending tourists. I was dizzied by the heat and the bizarre panoply of gods in combined animal and human form. Raji assured me that there are 60 million gods in the religion, but nobody really knows the exact number. Wikipedia advises me that Hindus can choose to be polytheistic, pantheistic, monotheistic, monistic, even agnostic, humanist or atheistic. All terribly confusing really.

By way of contrast there is an agreed belief amongst Christians that there is just one God, even if we speak of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. When we meet each Sunday we recite the Nicene Creed, which provides a concise expression of the God who has created the universe, was made flesh in Jesus Christ, died for our sins and rose again so that we might  experience the fullness of life in His presence now and beyond the grave. The creed also provides a clear rationale for why we continue to meet in church, supporting each other in Christian witness.

This year is the 1700th anniversary of the writing of the Creed by the council of Nicaea. If you would like to understand the Creed in more depth, I am running an Advent            discussion group entitled ‘We Believe’ which explores the Creed and its implications for our shared faith and witness. This will happen on four consecutive Mondays, 2.30pm- 4.00, starting 17th November and ending 8th December, at  St Thomas Parish Room, Kington Road, Weobley.

All are welcome!

Rev’d Philip