Hi,

Here we go again….still lockdown. I can’t imagine much worse than being locked up with my rubbish to keep you occupied (actually I can…my singing! )

My son would have something to say about this…he is about to do something either very brave or very stupid. He is about to trust me in lockdown with a pair of scissors and his hair. He’s hoping for a long lockdown after this so he can grow out whatever I do to his hair before he has to go back to school. So, before I fire up the power tools and sharpen the saw, I will get our usual resources together….

Kebra Negast

51. How he said unto ZADOK the Priest, “Go and bring the Covering (or, Clothing) which is upon it (i.e., ZION)” And he said unto ZADOK the priest, “Go, bring that covering which is upon ZION, and take thee this covering which is better than that, and lay it over the two [coverings] which are below it.” (Now this covering was made of threads of the finest gold wirework twisted together and hammered out into a pattern, and they were not woven like the threads of purple.) “And the five mice² which were given to ZION, and the ten³ figures of their shame (i.e., the emerods) which the nobles of the PHILISTINES made for their redemption-now on the fringes are figures of gold that came forth from the land of ḲÂDÊS, which MOSES in SINAI commanded should be made (or, worked) in the fringe of the apparel of AARON his brother-gather [all these] together in the covering of ZION and give [them] to my son DAVID. For his mother said in [her] message by TÂMRÎN her servant, ‘Give us some of the fringe of the covering of ZION, so that we may worship it, we and those who are in subjection unto us and all our kingdom.’ And now, give it to him, and say unto him, ‘Take [and] worship this covering of ZION, for thy mother sent a message concerning this, and hath said unto thee thyself, ‘Give us some of the fringe of its covering, which we can worship, so that we may not, like the heathen, worship another [god].’ And ZION, the Tabernacle of the Law of God, shall be unto thee a guide wheresoever thou art. But it must remain with us perpetually, although we have not paid it all the honour which is its due; and you, although it be not with you, must honour it, and revere it according to what is due to it and what is meet. For God said unto ELI by the mouth of SAMUEL the Prophet, ‘I wished you to remain, thou and thy father’s house, to offer up incense to the Tabernacle of My Law, and to dwell before Me for ever, but now I have repented. I will turn My face away from thee because thou hast treated My offerings with contempt, and hast preferred thy sons to Me. And now, him that honoureth Me I will honour, and him that esteemeth Me lightly I will esteem lightly; and I will destroy all thy seed.’¹ This He said because the LEVITES had esteemed Him lightly. And say unto him: Take this covering of ZION, and this votive gift shall be in the place of it, and place it in thy sanctuary. And when thou takest an oath and makest another to take an oath, swear thou and make him to swear by it, so that thou dost not make mention of the names of other gods of the heathen. And when thou sacrificest let thy face be towards us, and sacrifice to JERUSALEM and the holy ZION; and when thou prayest let thy face be towards JERUSALEM, and pray towards us.”

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Reasoning

Command

Deuteronomy 4 v35, 39
35 Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest know that the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, is God; there is none else beside him.
39 Know therefore this day, and consider it in thine heart, that the
LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, in heaven above, and upon the earth
beneath there is none else.

Will

Psalm 102 v18
18 This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD, Emperor Haile
Selassie I.

Desire

James 3 v17-18
17 But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits,
without partiality, and without hypocrisy.
18 And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make
peace.

Wish

Jeremiah 31 v33
33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, Emperor Haile Selassie I, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts;
and will be their God, and they shall be my people.

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Here is this week’s passage from The Apocrypha…

Book of Enoch: Chapter 5

1 Observe ye how the trees cover themselves with green leaves and bear fruit: wherefore give ye heed and know with regard to all His works, and recognize how He that liveth for ever hath made them so.

2 And all His works go on thus from year to year for ever, and all the tasks which they accomplish for Him, and their tasks change not, but according as God hath ordained so is it done.

3 And behold how the sea and the rivers in like manner accomplish and change not their tasks from His commandments’.

4 But ye -ye have not been steadfast, nor done the commandments of the Lord,
But ye have turned away and spoken proud and hard words
With your impure mouths against His greatness.
Oh, ye hard-hearted, ye shall find no peace.

5 Therefore shall ye execrate your days,
And the years of your life shall perish,
And the years of your destruction shall be multiplied in eternal execration,
And ye shall find no mercy.

6a In those days ye shall make your names an eternal execration unto all the righteous,
b And by you shall all who curse, curse,
And all the sinners and godless shall imprecate by you,
7c And for you the godless there shall be a curse.

6d And all the . . . shall rejoice,
e And there shall be forgiveness of sins,
f And every mercy and peace and forbearance:
g There shall be salvation unto them, a goodly light.

I And for all of you sinners there shall be no salvation,
j But on you all shall abide a curse.
7a But for the elect there shall be light and joy and peace,
b And they shall inherit the earth.

8 And then there shall be bestowed upon the elect wisdom,
And they shall all live and never again sin,
Either through ungodliness or through pride:
But they who are wise shall be humble.

9 And they shall not again transgress,
Nor shall they sin all the days of their life,
Nor shall they die of (the divine) anger or wrath,
But they shall complete the number of the days of their life.

And their lives shall be increased in peace,
And the years of their joy shall be multiplied,
In eternal gladness and peace,
All the days of their life.

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I found this in the Earth, Culture, Roots website and thought that it was good to read…

Yard word

from Ras Charles, published in “One World Beat” July, 2005

The true worship of God is a continuous action. Everything we do and create has to reflect the righteousness of God, so what caused the chosen of God to fall into a state of moral and mental decomposition? How did it happen in such condition?

How do we see ourselves, what is our vision, what are our aspirations, who is leading us, what kind of learning influences our thoughts, what are we doing to cause oneself to relate to us? How do we see others, as equals or as prey? What is preventing people from seeking the truth? Are their religious affiliations structured to prevent the influence of truth in their lives?

The lives of people (not all) are full of evil today, but they fail to recognize it, because their concept of evil has changed. Through deception, they visualize evil as being accepted as it is every event how the Devil has deceived the whole world into worshiping him and not God. The Devil has been successful in his craftiness by causing man/ woman to disassociate himself/ herself from the worship of God.

Only when we truly overstand how cultural expression determines worship, will we totally comprehend how to build and live in this world where all of the people love and worship God. Since the greatest obstacle preventing our reconciliation with God will be the Devil, it stands to reason that we must recognize the character and culture that reveal His presence and influence.

Let us note that a world under the Devil’s influence characterized by widespread degeneration, reducing the people far below ordinary standards of civilized life and conduct. “It has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph.”

What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.

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I love that…

What you are is God’s gift to you, what you become is your gift to God.

We have just had Pancake Day and there was chaos here! My son and Pete had a pancake competition. They made a load of the mixture each, to their own ‘secret’ recipe and set to with a frying pan to make a ton of pancakes. By the end, the kitchen was covered in sticky sugar, lemon, syrup, pancake, it looked like bags of flour had exploded, the floor was crunchy from spilt sugar and we all decided we couldn’t eat a single mouthful more of pancake til next Pancake Day.

We sat round the table talking about what we were doing for Lent. My husband has decided that he is going to give up ‘surplus cheese’…that is cheese that isn’t part of a meal and is just a fridge raid (he’s addicted to cheese and eats way more than he should), my son is giving up ‘too many biscuits’ but wisely decided not to define ‘too many’ so he could change the definition according to how many biscuits he wants 😊.

My 2 daughters and I were undecided but now I have read those words above…’what you become is your gift to God’, I think that’s what I’m going to try. I’m going to work on ‘becoming’. In the last couple of months, the bible verses I’ve included in these letters have been advice about what to become, the wisdom of a father to his children, how to lead a wise life. In fact, this week’s Reasoning ‘Desire’ verse, from James 3:17-18 is about how to live a wise life. This is what I think we should try to do..instead of giving up something that really makes no difference, we should try to live a life that is a gift to God.

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Bible Verse

So, fitting in with the idea of living a life that is a gift to God, the bible verse for this week I’m going to put in is an extension of the verse from James 3…

Two Kinds of Wisdom

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth.¹⁵ Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. ¹⁶ For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. ¹⁸ Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

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Prayer

This week’s prayer is from KenyaTalk Rastafari Website…

I pray to thee, Almighty God, Jah Rastafari, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Conquering Lion of the tribe of Judah.

That the words of mine own mouth as well the meditations of mine own heart be acceptable in thy sight.

That thou givest me strenght in my hour of weakness, wisdom in my hour of foolishness, patience in my hour of vex, understanding in my hour of confusion, grace and forgiveness in my hour of judgement.

Amen. Amen. Amen.

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I thought you might be interested in this…

Why do we eat pancakes on Shrove Tuesday?

In Christian traditions, the 40 days before Easter are known as Lent, and they mark the time that Jesus spent fasting in the desert. Traditionally, Christians would mark the period with prayers and fasting, abstaining from a whole range of foods, including meat, eggs, fish, fats and milk. The word ‘shrove’ comes from the old Roman Catholic practice of being ‘shriven’ – meaning to confess one’s sins. The shriving bell would be rung on Shrove Tuesday to call people to church to confess.

Before Lent could begin in earnest, all edible temptations needed to be removed. This took place over a period of days known as ‘Shrovetide’. Meat such as bacon would be eaten up on ‘Collop Monday’ (a collop is a thin slice of meat). And on Shrove Tuesday eggs, butter and stocks of fat would be used up. One of the easiest ways to dispose of these items was to turn them into pancakes or fritters, a custom which continued long after the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th century.

The Monday and Tuesday before Lent were periods of great festivity before the coming days of abstinence. Children would go ‘Shroving’ or ‘Lent-crocking’ on Shrove Tuesday (or the night before), knocking on their neighbours’ doors and singing. Sometimes they would bring shards of crockery or stones with them to throw at householders who refused to give them anything!

The origin of pancake races

As well as giving up “luxury” foods, the faithful were expected to forego fun pastimes such as dancing and playing games like football. Therefore, Shrovetide (the four days preceding Lent) was a time for merriment.

A legacy of these festivities is the pancake race. Dating from around 1445, legend has it that a local woman heard the shriving bell while she was making pancakes and ran to church in her apron, still clutching her frying pan.

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The great hair cutting has happened. I don’t think I made it look too bad. The problem was what he wanted….he wanted a mullet. Really, a mullet! I didn’t think i would ever see one of those again after the early 1990’s and I didn’t think it was any loss to hair styles generally, either. He, and his friends who all have similar, think that the mullet is the new great fashion statement. I’m unconvinced.

The snowdrops are in full flower here and the daffodils in the woods are all sprouted and are thinking about flowering. This week my husband put up the bird feeder and bird box I bought him for Valentines Day. Where he sits to work, he looks out of the window into the garden and he has been watching a pair of robins on the bird feeder. So I bought him a robin bird box for nesting and a robin feeder. I also (so romantic!) bought him a bucket of mealworms (and a scoop so he didn’t have to touch them) because mealworms are robins’ favourite food.

I am not expecting the robins to nest in the box this year. Usually they will scope out a nesting site in the autumn, ready for spring nesting, so this one hasn’t been up long enough. I’m hoping though that if I provide nice tasty (to robins!) mealworms, then they will stay around and hopefully nest here next year.

This week Anya, my husband’s dog, has been in trouble. I was busy sorting out our meal the other night and turned around to discover that Anya had boinged so high, just like a Harrier jump jet, and landed on the kitchen surface next to me. She hadn’t needed to scramble up, just boinged and landed, so she was almost silent, even with my bionic ears in, and took advantage of that by nicking our food!

Last week, one evening when it was pouring down with rain, my husband and I went out with Anya in the car to drop something at the post box. When we got back Anya refused to get out because she didn’t want to get her paws wet. She’s supposed to be a hunting dog but she’s such a princess! I started towards the house and turned round to see this…

She has Pete wrapped around her paw!! A farm dog being carried in because she didn’t want to get her paws wet…she’s ridiculous!

Right, I better get this sent off to chaplaincy. The number of COVID cases are dropping, the vaccination programme is well underway…..hopefully we will be able to re-start meetings soon.

Blessings,

Elizabeth