St Marks and All Saints West Parley

01/09/2026

Thank you to all who are sponsoring us to raise funds for Dorsets oldest churches. https://www.justgiving.com/page/anna-hardy-5

31/08/2026

Two weeks to go until Ride+Stride for Dorset Historic Churches Trust. Sponsorship will go towards preserving and repairing Dorset’s oldest churches, as donations are given out in grants. If you’d like to help please click the link - thank you. https://www.justgiving.com/page/anna-hardy-5

Help Anna Hardy raise money to support Dorset Historic Churches Trust

29/08/2026

29/08/2026

29/08/2026

Greetings.

The late Summer Bank Holiday falls at a time when many minds are beginning to focus, perhaps reluctantly, on the return to established patterns of life. There is a whiff of nostalgia about it as we look back over a long dry Summer mindful that Autumn is almost upon us.

The Equinox is still three weeks away and we hope yet for summery days, but the diminishing hours of daylight and the chill of morning and evening confirm the change of season. In my experience at least, no seasonal shift is quite as pronounced as this one. There are few regrets around the passing of Autumn, Winter or Spring, but the farewell to Summer carries with it an element of grief, a sense of the loss of something vital that can never quite be regained.

It is fitting that this Sunday's gospel (Matthew 16.21-end) marks a turning point in the narrative. Jesus set his face toward Jerusalem and revealed to his disciples the sobering truth of his destiny, to suffer and die at the hands of the elders, chief priests and scribes. The Galilean Summer was over and an Autumn chill filled the air. No doubt it intensified as Jesus told them that they too must deny themselves, take up the cross and follow him. Peter objected, but Jesus rebuked him sternly; Get thee behind me Satan. The cross had to be embraced as the way to life.

We pray regularly for our persecuted brothers and sisters in many parts of the world. Faithfulness to Christ in Iran (to take just one example) is costly indeed. It is far easier just to conform, but at what price? As Jesus said, for what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Texts such as this send a chill Autumnal air through my soul. I wonder how I would respond in such circumstances. Yet, as things stand, we do not (thanks be to God) live in such circumstances.

That day may yet come, and if it does, we can be sure that faithfulness to Christ will not be a matter of personal strength and courage alone. It will be a gift of grace, and that means that our only preparation can be to live fully for Christ in all times and seasons. We must be joyful in the moment trusting God for the grace to live faithfully for Christ whether the challenges be small or great.

Blessings,
Charles Booth

22/08/2026

Greetings.

You are Peter and on this rock I will build my church. These famous words from the gospel for this Sunday (Matthew 16.13-20) have been subject of claim and counterclaim since they were penned nearly two millennia ago.

Principally, of course, it has been argued that they are the foundation of the Papacy, in its claim to inherit the authority of St. Peter. Much ink has been spilled as, tragically, has much blood, in asserting and rebutting this contention. In its most conservative interpretation, the phrase identifies Jesus as an institution builder whose specific intention it was to establish a church with a strict hierarchy of command, Peter at the top, the other apostles below him, and others beneath them in a broadening pyramidal structure.

However we interpret these words, it would seem Jesus was singling out Peter for leadership and responsibility, but not in the context of hierarchy, privilege and power. For there is irony in those words. Peter had to learn what being a rock really meant. He had to grow into that name that Jesus had (perhaps mischievously) chosen for him. As a disciple Peter was full of bravado. But the bubble burst when he denied Jesus three times.

Subsequently, on the beach after the resurrection, Peter, contrite and humbled, received Jesus' forgiveness and was recommissioned to tend my sheep and feed my lambs. The imagery here is very different being of a pastoral rather than an institutional kind.

Peter had learned that being a leader did not mean being the tough authoritarian, solid and immoveable, but rather, soft enough to be pierced by nails and humble enough to know that there is but one true rock, Jesus himself, the true cornerstone.

Paul urged his readers in Rome to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God (Romans 12.1-8), his interpretation perhaps of what it is to be a rock. He wrote joyfully because Christian discipleship is a constant experieince of growing in the knowledge of Christ our cornerstone, discovering again and again what it is to be forgiven and renewed and pressing on in a spirit of humility and service.

Blessings,
Charles Booth

08/08/2026

God’s purpose for you.

Greetings.

I listened recently to a recording of Summer from Vivaldi's Four Seasons. It's a piece familiar to many, but listen to it carefully and it becomes apparent that Vivaldi's depiction of Summer is ambiguous to say the least.

He was an asthmatic who lived in Venice, which for all its grandeur is a low-lying city on the swampy estuary of the River Po. In the Summer it can be utterly stifling, the unbearable heat moderated only by thunderstorms which themselves can be violent and terrifying.

It is at its worst in early August, a time traditionally known as the dog days of Summer. It has nothing to do with dogs but corresponds with the rising of the Dog Star, Sirius, signifying the hottest and most uncomfortable time of year. Apart from the heat and the holidays, Summer seems spent and nature cries out for renewal.

In this Sunday's Old Testament reading (1 Kings 19.9-18) we encounter the prophet Elijah at his lowest ebb. He is the last faithful prophet alive in Israel and is a hunted man. On the run he seeks refuge on Mount Horeb and in desperation prays for death. But at his lowest ebb, God comes to him, not in the dramatic gestures of earthquake, wind or fire, but in a still, small voice. It is the moment of his renewal and Elijah comes storming back to complete his work.

The story is paired with the gospel account of Jesus walking on water (Matthew 14.22-33) which he only did after withdrawing to the hills for a time, apart from the crowds and the disciples. Both stories reinforce the truth that our strength, certainly in terms of character and purpose, is God-given, and that there are times when, in humility of heart, we must withdraw and wait upon God's renewing grace.

I have heard it said that when we reach the end of our reserves we are not beyond God resources. In those circumstances it is important to acknowledge our need and to cultivate the patience of waiting.

The natural world waits for the refreshing rains of Autumn. However you are spending these dog days of Summer, remember that God has a purpose for you, and if your reserves are low, the soft rains or renewing grace are surely not far away.

Blessings,
Charles Booth

02/08/2026

Choral Evensong today @ 6pm
All Saints, West Parley

01/08/2026

Greetings.

Ahead of Sunday's Tea in the Churchyard I must admit to feeling rather like the disciples in The Feeding of the Five Thousand (Matthew 14.13-21). It's unlikely that 5000 will descend upon All Saints' but, I find myself wondering anxiously about quantities of food, and whether we will run out of some things and perhaps be left with a surfeit of others.

Admittedly, the balance between cake and sandwiches wasn't quite the dilemma the disciples faced when Jesus said, You feed them. Five thousand people and five loaves and two fishes. It's an impossible equation and it seems almost that Jesus was teasing them when he issued the challenge. But, rather than testing their mathematical ingenuity, I suspect he was challenging them with a question of trust. Could they put their trust wholeheartedly in God, the God revealed in their friend and Lord, Jesus?

The miracle is one of numerous feeding stories in the Scriptures and the thread common to all of them is trust. Rather than being just extraordinary ways of resolving a conundrum, these stories take one of the most basic of human needs and magnify it as a way of demonstrating our entire dependence on God.

We are vulnerable and certainly our ancestors knew that they were never more than a poor harvest away from starvation.

And our vulnerability is deeper than the daily bread for which we pray. It embraces the totality of life itself, even the next breath and the next heartbeat. God is the giver and sustainer of all.

In the prophet Isaiah (ch.55.1-5), the word of God is, Come to me and listen to my words, hear me and you will have life. The challenge issued by Jesus on that remote hillside was to take those words to heart. We don't know the impact of the miracle on the disciples, or on the crowd for that matter. Some, no doubt, were just glad of the meal and thought no more of it. But I'm sure some would have taken it to heart and been renewed in their relationship with God. Admittedly, we are unlikely to witness such an extraordinary event, but the challenge remains, to cast fear aside, to be thankful in all things, and to come to the well of life and drink freely.

Blessings,

Charles Booth