Shaken

April 2026

Dear Friends

Since December we now all know what an earthquake feels like (albeit a small one) and how worrying it is to think that your roof is falling in or your neighbour’s house has exploded. 

Most people are glad to get off boats and planes and get their “feet back on solid ground”.  But those who experience big earthquakes say that it is deeply unsettling when the ground is no longer solid and no place of safety remains.  So the shaking of the ground can stand as a symbol for any sudden, unexpected or overwhelming disruption to our lives or to the world.

There are two earthquakes recorded in the Gospels. 

The first happened at the same moment that Jesus, crying out in a loud voice from the cross, gave up his spirit and died.  “The earth shook and the rocks split”  Matthew 27:51.  We don’t need to believe that God ‘interfered’ in the normal movement of tectonic plates to produce an earthquake at just the right time – we just need to accept the Bible’s claim that no atom moves without God’s command, He “rules over all”  Psalm 103:19.  God shakes the world that rejects and crucifies his Son, giving notice that judgment is coming for the stubborn and unexpected rescue for the trusting.

The second earthquake happened 3 days later (according to their way of reckoning) at dawn on the first day of the week.  “There was a violent earthquake, for an angel of the Lord came down from heaven and, going to the tomb, rolled back the stone and sat on it.”  Matthew 28:2  What else but a violent shaking of solid ground could convey the enormity of what was happening, the splitting of history into BC and AD.  The reign of death that brings such misery to all was giving way to a new era in which all who trust in Christ are assured that they too will stand triumphant on the other side of death.

The three sad days are quickly sped;
he rises glorious from the dead.
All glory to our risen Head.
Hallelujah!

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Culture Review

March 2026

Dear Friends

‘Culture’ can refer to the music or art that a group of people like.  More broadly, it means the way that a group or society behave, and the things that they believe and value.  Sometimes we rejoice in the culture – when someone’s honesty leads them to make a big effort to return to us something that we lost.  Sometimes we despair – at destructive and selfish acts that seem to be deep-rooted.  (And, of course, we get much more easily worked up by bad behaviour in others than by our own self-centredness.)

Culture flows from worship.  If you want to understand the culture of a group then think about what or who they worship.  What are they devoted to?  Who are the ‘gods’ they are living for?  What do they spend their money on?  Who are they looking to for happiness and security?  What do they serve?

Culture flows from worship.  Even the word ‘culture’ comes from a Latin word that means to cultivate, honour or worship.

The prominent church building in our village tells us what previous generations thought about the worship of the villagers – that it ought to be directed to the Lord Jesus Christ as the one who created us and died to rescue us.  That there is space to spare in our church on Sundays despite the large increase in population tells us that most of us have been directing our worship and our hope elsewhere.

So my question is, How are the gods of our age doing?  Are they delivering on their promises?  Are they producing a culture that we can rejoice in, or not?  What effect is the worship of other ‘gods’ having on our children and grandchildren?  What our village worships will determine what our village becomes.

If you are starting to think that our trust has been in the wrong place, and you would be willing to hear again the command of the God of the Bible that we have ‘no other gods before Him’ then please consider coming along to one of our First Steps services, and bringing your family along too.  We promise to make every effort to help and encourage you to take what may be your first steps in a whole new direction.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Starting the Journey

February 2026

Dear Friends

‘Journey to Rome’

There may still be some places left on our Holiday Club organised by Burton and Holme Churches and taking place at Burton Morewood School on Thursday 19 and Friday 20 February 2026 from 9am to 5pm each day.  £6 for 2 days to cover snacks and lunch.

Our enthusiastic leaders and helpers are getting ready to welcome children (from Reception to Year 6) for a packed two days of Roman and Italian-themed activities and Bible teaching led by Sue Aranzulla who has many years’ experience of organising similar events.  We’re also inviting parents, carers and other family members to Aperitivos at 4pm on the Friday to enjoy a taste of the culture the children will have experienced.

To book please go to www.burtonandholmechurches.org

First Steps Services

Are you or your family interested in coming to church but feel that would be as big a step for you as it would be for me to join a Scuba diving club – I’ve never been to such a thing and I have no idea what that would be like!  Starting on Sunday 22 February the last Sunday service each month will be a ‘First Steps Service’ – when those who regularly join us for worship will be especially ready to welcome children, young adults and older adults who have not attended church very much, or at all.  The service will be like our regular Sunday gatherings but shorter (about 50 minutes) and we’ll make every effort not to baffle or embarrass but to be clear and welcoming.  We encourage you to bring children of all ages and not to worry about noise or fidgeting.      

Our first ‘First Steps’ service will be at 10am on Sunday 22 February in St James Burton and we will be inviting all children and families from the Holiday Club to come too.  You will be very welcome.  For all who are able to stay the short service will be followed by a ‘Holiday Club Round-Up’ over refreshments.  And then a warm invitation to everyone to stay for a light lunch which we will provide.

Future ‘First Steps’ services will alternate between Burton and Holme.  If you join our mailing list (use the link at www.burtonandholmechurches.org) then we’ll email to let you know when and where they will be.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Incredible?!

December 2025

So a young unmarried woman, claiming that she was still a virgin, gave birth to a baby boy in the chaos that Caesar inflicted by commanding everyone to travel back to their home town for a census  – and her fiancé believed her?!  And not because they were ignorant people – they all knew full well where babies ordinarily come from and Joseph was ready to split from his unfaithful fiancée over this.  But he and others came to accept that God, the Creator of all, didn’t need the seed of any man to create a baby within Mary.

The thing is, this is not the part of the account that most challenges our earth-bound assumptions.  Those who tell the story go on to explain that the arrival of Mary’s son was like that of a traveller from another world – his body was new but he himself was older than the hills, for he made them: “without him nothing was made that has been made” (John 1:3). 

He was, it was said, none other than the eternal son of the living God who was on a mission to rescue many from our senseless rebellion against our Creator and bring us to kneel before him as our Lord and to accept his undeserved gift of complete forgiveness and a radically new life.

And when the authorities caught up with Jesus, found a way to condemn him with their lying accusations and had him brutally executed, his disciples claimed that he only stayed dead for a couple of days.  Not merely resuscitated, God “exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow … and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord …”  (Philippians 2:9-10).

It's enough to make you string up bright lights around your home, buy in the best food you can afford for a celebration meal, hand out presents to those you love, and to sing at the top of your voice:

Christians, awake, salute the happy morn,
Whereon the Saviour of the world was born;
Rise to adore the mystery of love,
Which hosts of angels chanted from above;
With them the joyful tidings first begun
Of God incarnate and the Virgin’s Son.

Happy Christmas!

Graham Burrows

Strength that Sacrifices

November 2011

Dear Friends

What are men for?  The answer given by Rob Munro, our bishop, while on an October visit to our congregations, was that men are to be “strength that sacrifices”.  That is, we are to be strong in every way (not just physically) so that we can stand against all that is evil.  And when there is a price to pay, and suffering that can’t be dodged, we are to be ready to step into the line of fire to protect those we love.  How did the bishop know that is our calling?  “Because,” he said, “that’s what Jesus did.”

Those who were eyewitnesses of Jesus’ life and work tell us that he always chose to serve and not to be served, that he rebuked his disciples for worrying about their own needs instead of serving others, and that he courageously stood up to the powerful Jerusalem leaders who were exploiting widows.  And, knowing that his execution was the sacrifice that was needed to save others from their sin, Jesus told the mob that came for him in the middle of the night to let his friends go free and to get on with arresting him.  “Greater love has no-one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.” (Jesus in John 15:13)

Of course both fathers and mothers should sacrifice for their children, and self-sacrifice is essential to all love.  But a healthy nation will be one that is not ashamed to especially encourage its young men to be strong, strong in the fight against all that is evil, and strong in their willingness to shoulder the responsibility to sacrifice themselves for others.  “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her …”  (the apostle Paul in Ephesians 5)

On Remembrance Sunday we will remember with sadness and gratitude the years in our history when the ultimate sacrifice was required of so many hundreds of thousands.  Churchill thought that this selfless courage had turned dark days into “great days — the greatest days our country has ever lived”.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning, We will remember them.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

Breaking Barriers

October 2025

Signs warning some types of people not to enter.  A fear of being defiled by those who behave differently or eat different foods.  Derogatory names for other people groups and pride that ‘we’re not like them’. 

I’m talking about the deep divisions in the 1st Century between men and women, slave and free, and supremely between Jew and Gentile - the temple in Jerusalem had walls and warnings to keep certain groups out of the central areas.

But I could have been speaking about our 21st Century world, where deep divisions still lead to disdain, angry messages, shouting and threats, sticks or bullets.

If we despair of an end to all this we should remember the remarkable reconciliation seen in the 1st Century in fledgling congregations of believers in Jesus Christ.  The tensions didn’t disappear overnight; the New Testament records several disputes between Gentile Christians and Jewish Christians – in one case fuelled by the hypocrisy of the apostle Peter!  And down the centuries there have been many examples of Christians failing to treat each other as brothers.

But the New Testament also shows the Gospel message itself defusing the hostility.  The Jewish believers learnt that they were not rescued from God’s judgment by their keeping of Old Testament laws but only by putting their trust in the death of Christ on their behalf.  And the Gentile believers learnt that they were reconciled to God in exactly the same way.  There could be no boasting from either.  And so, standing together in prayer, sitting under the authority of God’s Word preached, breaking bread and sharing the cup on exactly the same terms, the great dividing wall of the day was torn down, along with all other divisions that spring from human pride.

Today this can still be seen in local churches where fellow servants of Christ kneel, sit and stand together with others from completely different walks of life and parts of the world.  In the DNA of the church is hope for true peace.  Christ’s ‘purpose was to create in himself one new man out of the two, thus making peace’ (Ephesians 2:15)

Sincerely

Graham Burrows

When can I retire?

September 2025

Dear Friends

When I arrived in Holme and Burton 12 years ago and began to get to know the villages and the congregations I discovered that a man called Medwin Sherriff, already in his 80s, was doing a lot of things in Holme.  Nobody seemed to know how long he had had these roles but the time was measured in decades rather than years.

That applied to him serving on the Parish Council, and as Chairman of the Parish Council, but also to his editing of the Holme Parish Newsletter, a mix of church news and other village news – the rough equivalent for Holme of ‘Burton News’ in the other place.  Medwin told me that he’d been asked to edit the newsletter by a vicar who was so far back in the history of the church that (as a newcomer) I’d never heard of him.  Medwin had edited the newsletter, year after year, ever since.

We’ve got very used to the idea of retirement – both from paid jobs but also from unpaid roles.  Sometimes we have to stop, but we can also just reach a point where we say, “I’ve done my part, someone else can do this hard work now!” 

The Bible certainly teaches us that work has been frustratingly difficult right from the fall of man onwards, but Jesus also tells us that work is fundamentally good because he knows that God, his Father, is always at his work (Jn 5:17).

Medwin seems to have understood that very well, as he continued labouring to the best of his ability, in the service of others, and encouraged and supported by his wife, Molly, until he really couldn’t work anymore.

Medwin Sherriff died at home on 17 July, aged 94.  His funeral was held at Holy Trinity Holme on Friday 15 August.  I thank God for Medwin, for his steady energy and hard work, and for the great encouragement and help that he was to me, and so many others.

Sincerely

Graham Burrows