As part of the ceremony the new High Sheriff has to read a long declaration about how he will maintain law and order in the lands under his jurisdiction and about how he will faithfully serve the Monarch and not abuse his position of authority. Traditionally the High Sheriff has responsibility for maintaining law and order in the county – a symbol of this, and one of the major events of the year, is the service for Her Majesty’s Judges, which will take place in St Paul’s Church, Bedford in September.

The maintenance of law and order is paramount in any society. From earliest times societies have devised codes of behaviour and imposed sanctions on those who offend. These have often developed in a religious context – one of the earliest examples and the basis of our own code of behaviour is the Ten Commandments. They are often criticized as being too full of negatives – ‘Thou shalt do no murder, thou shalt not commit adultery, thou shalt not steal, thou shalt not bear false witness, thou shalt not covet.’ – and yet if we consider the major causes of upset in our modern society, perhaps we would do well to concentrate more on these negatives – and on the positives that precede them.

I always use the old form of the Commandments when I take a service of Holy Communion according to the Book of Common Prayer. This can be shortened to the newer Commandment given to us by Our Lord ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’ A beautiful Command, for if we truly love God and neighbour then we shall never, never do anything to hurt or injure a fellow human being.

I wish Daniel a good and constructive year as High Sheriff and ask for your prayers for the maintenance of law, order and decency in this County of Bedford and in all this land.

Yours in Christ

Jo

All seeking election to Parliament

The new Parliament to meet in May

Those who maintain law and order in our land.

It has become our tradition over the last few years to meet together in our Deanery for a service to celebrate Ascension Day. This year Ascension Day is on Thursday 13th May and the service is to be held in the beautiful church at Stevington. Fr Mac, who sometimes takes services at Turvey when I am away, will be presiding at the service. Do put the date in your diary and make an effort to come.

Without the desert there is no oasis.

Abraham Barzali

The next coffee morning will be at 10:15am on Saturday 8th May, at 7 Elmwood by kind invitation of Miss Dawn Riddle. There will be a raffle and a bring-and-buy stall for which contributions would be very welcome. Thank you to everyone who helped with and supported my coffee morning last month. It was warm enough to sit outside in the sunshine and although we were few in number we had a very enjoyable time and raised £170.

Thank you to everyone who gave money for flowers in memory of loved ones at Easter. Thank you too for the little band of helpers, children included, who worked so hard on the Saturday to make the church look beautiful for Easter Day. We do need more volunteers to help with church flowers throughout the year. If you are interested Anne Claypole White (881661) would be delighted to hear from you!

Also a big thank you to Marilyn Eaton for decorating our cross with daffodils once more, I am informed that she got up at the crack of dawn to finish it. Well done Marilyn!

We have received a thank you letter from Belinda Kenny, District co-ordinator—North Beds, Samaritan’s Purse International, for our donation of shoeboxes for Operation Christmas Child. I quote from the letter "The efforts of each and every one of you impacts on the lives of desperate, lonely and needy children—YOU DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE ! Should you want to learn more about Turn on the Tap, Operation Christmas Child or the relief work SP are currently providing to Haiti and Chile please do visit the website.

www.samaritans-purse.org.uk

Loving God, the birth of your Son Jesus Christ brought great joy to Mary and Joseph. We give thanks to you for everyone whose birthday we celebrate this month. May they ever grow in your faith, hope and love. We ask this in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen

Maria was born in Bletchley, near Milton Keynes and seems to have spent most of her childhood moving, not only house but also country! When she was one the family moved to Singapore for three years and when they came back her parents bought a house in Harrold. She went to the local nursery for a short while and then the family moved to Singapore (from where she visited her grandmother in the Seychelles) then a posting to Malawi for three years (her father was a Foreign Office Diplomat.), on the family’s return to the UK she returned to school at Harrold for a brief time until her parents were posted to Cyprus. Maria and her sister were then sent to boarding school. Other postings followed, first to Darwin Australia, followed by Jordan and Turkey. Her younger brothers went to be schooled in Cyprus before coming back to do their University years in England. Maria’s older sister now lives in Cyprus with her family, one brother an accountant lives Gibraltar and the other, an environment manager, lives near London.

Maria did her 6th Form at Bedford High School and then did a degree in Engineering in London. Then it was back to Bedford to do a teaching degree at Polhill Campus. It was during this time when she was 21 that her father died in a tragic road accident in Zimbabwe while on a three month posting, the family still miss him very much. She then taught at Daubenney Middle School, Bedford, for three years, it was whilst working here that she met Adrian through a mutual friend. It did not take long to get the travel bug again, this time found her teaching and working in the Philippines. She says she met loads of people and had a fabulous time. Whilst there she got

involved helping poor people through the church. She used to get all her

friends and their families to donate goods for the poor. She says the children

had nothing but still were happy and had a zest for life,. Whilst there Adrian visited and eventually persuaded her to come back after two years.

Maria returned to another teaching post at The Royal School, Hampstead, after which she returned to Bedford again to take up a teaching post at St. Gregory's and also to get married! Before she married she was baptized and confirmed. She had not been baptized as her mother who was a catholic would not sign papers for her to be brought up solely as a catholic, her mother saying that she should be brought up in both faiths as her father was an Anglican. She did attend the Catholic services more often than the Anglican as it was her mother who took her and her sibling to church. Maria says she remembers questioning her mother as to why she and her sister were not baptized as the other girls at boarding school used to ask.

She married Adrian (Cook) in Harrold C of E church in 1997 and bought a house in Turvey to settle down and start a family. And boy did she! For someone who had never thought of having children of her own she now has six! The Eldest is Louise, then along came two boys Jacob and Laurence, followed by two girls Emma and Nicole and finally David. The children have all been given the surname of Nicols Cook as Maria did not want to lose her family name. All the family come to church and four of the children now sing in the choir. Five of the children were baptized together at All Saint’s in June 2005, so now she just has to arrange Davids! Maria has done supply teaching since the children came along and home schools the two eldest.

When at school she was into sport and played tennis, lacrosse and netball and did gymnastics but she says her hobbies now are doing activities with the children and scuba diving with Adrian. She encourages the children to participate in anything and everything and to give it their best shot. The family often visit Cyprus for holidays as her mother spends a lot of time at their house there. She would love to travel more but family commitments mean that she must wait for a few more years yet until the children are older.

Maria says she enjoys making a difference to peoples lives, though trained as a teacher, she says we should be aware that we are all teachers and says everybody on this planet is somebody's child who should be treated as such no matter who they are. She says everyone matters. She says she is proud to be who she is and also proud of her parents for bringing her up to be who she is today.

A boat docked in a tiny Mexican fishing village. A tourist complimented the local fisherman on the quality of his fish and asked how long it took him to catch them. "Not very long"? Answered the fisherman. "Why don’t you stay out longer and catch more?" The fisherman explained that their small catches were sufficient to meet their needs and those of their families. "But what do you do with the rest of your time?" "We sleep late, play with our children and take siestas with our wives. In the evening we see our friends , play the guitar and sing.. We have a full life". The tourist interrupted "I have a an MBA from Harvard and I can help you. You should start by fishing longer every day, you can then sell the extra catch and with the revenue you can buy a bigger boat". "And after that"? "With the extra money the large boat will bring, you can buy a second one and a third one and so on until you have an entire fleet of trawlers. Instead of selling your fish to a middle man, you can negotiate directly with the processing plants, maybe even open up your own plant. You can then leave this village and move to Mexico City, Los Angeles or even New York. From there you can direct your vast new enterprise". "How long would that take?" "Twenty years", replied the tourist. "And after that"?" "Afterwards, well my friend, that’s when it gets really interesting, when your business gets really big, you can start buying and selling stocks and make millions"! "Millions really, and after that?" asked the fisherman. "After that you will be able to retire, live in a tiny village near the coast, sleep late, play with your children and take siestas with you wife and spend the evenings drinking and enjoying your friends". "With all due respect sir, that’s exactly what I do now, so what is the point of wasting twenty years"? said the Mexican.

And the moral of this story is:

Know where you are going in life...you may already be there!

The sad thing is, many people seem to have forgotten how to love properly – and many are unfamiliar with the old Commandments, which might remind us. In seeking to be modern and ‘trendy’ society is afraid of looking back to what is good and true. We may or may not profess to like the appearance of tradition – the ceremonial and the fancy dress – but it is more than just ritual. I believe it points us to deeper truths and truths we neglect at our peril.