Faith in Shenley
For information about services, please click on the following links.
St Martin's (Church of England)
Church of the Good Shepherd (Roman Catholic)
Shenley United Jewish Committee (United Synagogue)
[The information in this section is reproduced from Shenley Parish News by kind permission of the editor, Erika Rowdon]
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From Anthony
Dear Friends,
The previous newsletter mentioned uncertain times in terms of the World Economy and what faces us in the future. We have had in our community a difficult month and are mourning the passing of Rabbi Shmuli Kass who succumbed to a terrible illness which he bravely suffered for a year. Rabbi Kass was only 30 years of age and has left a widow and three young children to face a future full of the unknown.
Rabbi Kass felt that God had given him this illness for a reason, and bravely encouraged our community to pray and learn. He bore his illness with dignity and never complained once how he felt on the occasions when he was able to carry out his ministerial duties. Rabbi Kass was also a learned teacher and was the head of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Free School in Kenton. He was also associated with a number of other communal institutions. He was a very approachable person and had the skill to reach out to the younger members of the community and give them hope for the future. His ministry has made our Community all the stronger as we will strive to carry on with his work by eventually finding a more permanent home for our services. We owe it to his memory and his family to make our community thrive and never to forget his teachings.
We are mourning his loss and are trying to come to terms and reason why such a good person, full of hope and energy who gave so much to the community was taken from us. Only God knows the answer and we will continue to carry on, business as usual.
It is quite amazing in times of trouble and sorrow that we have seen increases in the already large attendances of our Sabbath services on Saturday as well as our extended learning evenings. I am sure Rabbi Kass would have approved of the renewed interest in religion that our local community has and it is nice to see lots of new faces joining us.
As time moves on we are nearing the end of the year and our focus is on Chunukah which is a freedom festival in December where we give presents and eat traditional fried foods. The children always look forward to it and we hope that 2008 will be a better year for our community.
Anthony Spencer
Shenley United Jewish Community