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The Infinity of Lists

One of my favourite books to dip into is The Infinity of Lists, by Umberto Eco (who also wrote The Name of the Rose, which became a Sean Connery film starring a very young Christian Slater).

This is a book which would impossible to read from cover to cover, as it is itself a list of lists, using lists to explore and understand what lists are and why we are fascinated with them.

From the list of demands the RMT is making to the rail companies, to the harrowing lists of destruction in the war in Ukraine, to the endless lists of COVID statistics we were bombarded with for two years, lists define us.

It is hard to imagine that the whole virtual world in which we live and breathe and have our being—and without which we could not even read emails!—is nothing more than a very complex list. Every computer algorithm is a list of instructions to be followed in order, all boiling down somehow to an endless stream of the simplest of all lists: 1 and 0, over and over again.

Unfortunately, all lists ultimately limit options, making choice finite and boundaried. The irony of 'the infinity of lists' is that the more lists there are, the more finite the world becomes.

St Paul gives us a couple of lists in one of Sunday's readings. The ancient world liked a list as much as we do, but I think their lists helped them to see where things had got to rather than where they are going. St Paul saw himself as opening up a world of limitless possibilities, rather than prescribing a choice from a set of equivalent options.

The modern world loves to create the illusion of choice, and uses the power of lists to do just that. But the Christian response to the abundance of creation is to cultivate freedom and reflect the agency that a loving God gives to his creation. Christians have long said, "The truth shall set you free!" Let's resist the urge to make that a multiple choice question with four pre-determined answers (Choose A, B, C or D), but allow people to find in Christ a freedom in which there is an unboundaried, infinity of grace.

Summer Sundays

From July 31 to August 28 inclusive, we will move into Summer Sundays. That means at Holy Trinity we shall have shorter services, with just two readings and a short homily, the altar will be placed in the nave, and we will celebrate in the round. At Great Hampden we will have BCP Mattins each week.

Missenden Abbey Summer Fair

This year's fair will be on Sunday 17th July, 11am - 4pm. Holy Trinity, Prestwood will have a stall there and will be selling preserves, cakes, savoury goodies and hand made goods. We would be grateful for help with any of the below tasks -

Setting up the stall
Making cakes, jams, goodies etc
Serving during the day
Clearing away at the end of the day

If you can help in anyway, please speak to Jean Green or email the office at secretary@htprestwood.org.uk

Donations of cleaning products for the Chiltern Foodbank

Along with dried and tinned food, the Chiltern Foodbank give clients 'extras' they require such as toiletries and cleaning products. Stocks of cleaning products are currently very low and donations would be appreciated. If you are able to add a couple of the items below to your weekly shop please leave them in the collection tub at the back of church at HTP during the next two weeks. Much needed items are as follows:

Washing powder

Washing up liquid

Kitchen spray

Bathroom spray

Toilet cleaner

Thank you for your support. For more details contact Fran, our Families Worker on families@htprestwood.org.uk.

Make Lunch Club this Summer at Holy Trinity, Prestwood

The Make Lunch team are planning a fun series of session for families this Summer holiday here at Holy Trinity, Prestwood. We will be serving a hot and nutritious two-course meal, along with themed crafts and outdoor activities each Wednesday for 6 weeks starting on Wednesday 27th July. We would love to invite more families along and therefore need to expand our team of volunteers that form our Kitchen Team and our Activities Team. If you would like to get involved then please contact Fran, our Families Worker on families@htprestwood.org.uk, or give her a call on 07934 050468. She would love to hear from you!

Order your HTP Guidebook

On Trinity Sunday we launched our new guidebook to Holy Trinity, Prestwood written by local historian Anne Holmes. You can order your copy by filling in this form. When we have collected all the orders we will print the books, and the final cost will be determined by the print run size. We will let people know the final cost before ordering.

Order your Guidebook

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Regular Giving

You can give regularly through the Parish Giving Scheme. The Parish Giving Scheme (PGS) is a secure, established service for managing Direct Debit donations, designed to support churches to fund their mission and ministry.

We would like you to make a regular monthly payment, as this helps us to plan ahead for the year. A sizable proportion of us give between £50 and £250 per month, with some giving less and some giving more. We all need to give proportionately to support the work of our church. This means thinking about what other costs we have in our lives, and valuing our church and its life sensibly within that.

The PGS makes it possible for donors to:

Donate monthly, quarterly or annually by Direct Debit
Sign up to inflation-linked giving annually
Enhance your gift to your church by having Gift Aid at 25% added to your giving
Give securely and donate anonymously, if you prefer

Start Giving with PGS

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