News from the Pews

Hello my brothers and sisters in Christ.

Over the next few weeks, the Church will be celebrating two important festivals - All Saints Day and Christ the King early and late in November.

I expect the month of November is marked in most of our minds as the month of Remembrance. The Church celebrates All Saints Day on 1st November. It celebrates the lives of men and women in whom the Church as a whole has seen the grace of God powerfully at work. It gives us an opportunity to give thanks for that grace and to be encouraged by the example of the saints. We will also be having our memorial service in this month when we remember with thanksgiving before God those whom we have known more directly, including those who gave us life or who nurtured us in faith.

The festival of 'Christ the King' is the last Sunday of the Christian Year. The annual cycle of the Church's year ends with the Feast of Christ the King. The year begins with the hope of the coming Messiah and now ends with the proclamation of his universal sovereignty.

Pope Pius XI instituted The Feast of Christ the King in 1925 for the universal Church, in his encyclical Quas Primas.  He connected the increasing denial of Christ as King to the rise of secularism throughout much of Europe.  At the time of Quas Primas, many Christians (including Catholics) began to doubt Christ's authority and existence, as well as the Church's power to continue Christ's authority.

We celebrate Christ the King, and He is indeed the king of the universe, Jesus however, washed his disciples’ feet and connected his role as King to humble service, and commanded his followers to be servants as well. In other passages of Scripture, his kingdom is tied to his suffering and death. While Christ is coming to judge the nations, his teachings spell out a kingdom of justice and judgment balanced with radical love, mercy, peace, and forgiveness.

Jesus' kingship is one of power and might, but also love and humility. When we celebrate Christ as King, we are not celebrating an oppressive ruler, but one willing to die for humanity and whose "loving-kindness endures forever." Christ is the king that gives us true freedom, freedom in Him. 

Christ the King Sunday used to be celebrated on the last Sunday of October but since the calendar reforms of 1969, the feast falls on the last Sunday of Ordinary Time, which is the Sunday before Advent. Around this time many of us would already be thinking about Christmas, so the observance of Christ the King can help us prepare by stressing the continuity between the celebration of kingship, or sovereignty, of Christ and the expectation of Christ’s coming again in sovereign glory which opens the Advent Season.

We have more than a baby Jesus at Christmas; we have a sovereign Christ. It is fitting that the feast celebrating Christ's kingship is observed right before Advent, when we liturgically wait for the promised Messiah (King).

As many of us will, no doubt, be rushing around in around this time getting things for Christmas; perhaps we can be thankful for those we have around us and spare a thought for those who may be facing this time of year without a loved one, possibly for the first time. 

Before we know it, Christmas will have come and gone, and we will be looking at the New Year coming in. What will 2023 bring for you and your family, for the people of Morley, for our nation and the world...?

Some things we have no control over, other things we do. My hope and prayer are that, together, we can work to make our Church a place where many generations to come will feel comfortable and welcome, a place to nurture and inspire children and young people, a place where communities can live happily side by side and where people can grow old together, with security and hope that will support them to the end of their lives.

God’s blessing and Grace always

Reverend Olasupo Ogunyinka.