Dear All Saints and St Marys

One of my favourite story books as a child was "The owl who was afraid of the dark" by Jill Tomlinson. For me it evokes good memories, it was both a book that my mother read to me and also one that I was first able to read by myself. The baby owl Plop (what a great name!) discovers new things about the dark, that it can be a place of excitement and discovery and need not always be a place to be feared.

Yet the darkness can be a scary place. As the nights draw in and the days shorten, so too do the readings we hear in church take on more sombre and darker notes. The bible stories remind me that the whole compass of life will involve rupture and darkness, uncertainty and fragility. How do God's people navigate the darkness and yet remain a people of light and hope? That is a question that has been asked time and time again.

These past weeks of elections, budgets, remembrance and fracture illuminate a vulnerability and fragility of the world. The Church is not immune from the darkness, and it necessitates a need to be both repentant and reflective about how harm done is acknowledged and amendment keenly sought.

In the Letter to the Hebrews it speaks of "how to provoke one another to love and good deeds" and to "not neglect meeting together". I was struck by how important both elements of this were to being able to discover the guiding lights when it feels dark outside. That we are called to be a people who "agitate" ourselves and others in love and that this is done most effectively when we meet others. Some of the most poignant, challenging and yet hopeful of moments in life are when we seek to be with others in the flesh, face to face.

I wish to encourage us to do so, be it in church, cafes, parks or elsewhere in the spaces we work, play and encounter others. Meeting together, even when fragile and wobbly, is a possible way to be able to see in the darkness, so that it doesn't confound or frighten us, but allows us a path of light to follow.

This week we meet to worship together - 

Sunday 17th November

10.00am - St Marys - Sung Holy Communion with Baptism
10.30am - All Saints - Holy Communion with Hymns

The week ahead

Monday 18th 10.30am Tiny Tots - All Saints
Tuesday 19th 10:30am Music 4 Tots - St. Marys
Wednesday 20th 9:00am Celtic Morning Prayer - All Saints
Thursday 21st 10:00am Holy Communion - St. Mary’s
Thursday 21st 12.00 Funeral - St Marys
Saturday 23rd 12.00 Wedding - St Mary’s

Sunday 24th 

 8.00am Holy Communion - All Saints
10:00am Sung Holy Communion - St Marys
10.30am Café Church - All Saints

Blessings
Revd Lizzie