Our Church Services - Alnwick, St James

Our Minister's Letter
Dear Friends
One of my memorable moments from childhood was going to see my first
Broadway show, the US version of the West End. It was a musical, as my
parents were fond of musicals, recently opened and wowing the audiences. It
was called Fiddler on the Roof. I think my parents chose it because I was
struggling with violin lessons and they wanted to give me encouragement. What I
got out of it was something different, a love of the theatre and a love of the
story of Fiddler on the Roof.
For those who don't remember, it's about a Jewish family in Russia in the
1880's, a time of persecution and upheaval for the Russian Jews. And while it
was about persecution it was also about family and, most importantly, the
traditions they held that kept them together in communities. That is not to say
that traditions were always followed, as Tevye wrestled with his children's need
to change and break away from some of the old ways. Some traditions were
restrictive and some were freeing and some were the foundation of their lives.
Which traditions in your life would you say are restrictive, freeing or the
foundation of your life? It isn't easy to change when we have grown up with
certain ways of life. For example, this month we celebrate Mother's Day. Blame
it on the Americans if you will, but how many today celebrate Mothering Sunday
- what it was really meant to be? It is our tradition and yet today Mother's Day
seems so much more appropriate. Like Tevye, we may rail against the change,
but in the end traditions have to have meaning or they cease to be.
Tevye discovered that traditions may come and go, new ways of thinking bring
new changes. Those traditions that are the foundations of life do not change,
for they are the anchor we need in a world that changes, sometimes too fast
and sometimes in the wrong directions. Our core, our centre, is our faith. It can
help us wrestle with the issues of the world that confront us, it can help us
change when the world changes, it can be shaken when we are in turmoil and
doubt. But it is a part of us that we come back to again and again, the
foundation of our lives, that carries us through the worst of times. Tevye had to
endure much, a changing world, a changing family, a changing attitude
towards people, but at the centre of his life he knew he had his faith and
that was all he needed to take him wherever the winds of change would
blow him.