From Rev'd Tom

Dear friends,

Welcome to summer! It certainly looks like being a busy one across the benefice with weddings, baptisms, events and fetes galore. We really have so much to celebrate at this time of year and give thanks for.

However, all of this would have achieved nothing without it being based and rooted in prayer and the love of God. I am reminded again and again that as 1 Corinthians 13 tells us ‘If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.’ That was true when St Paul wrote it nearly 2000 years ago and it is no less true today. I think that it is very refreshing to realise that people are people wherever or indeed whenever they live. Everyone is inherently valuable, inherently precious and loved by God, just like us. Across the wider world, it does seem sometimes that the lessons of 1 Corinthians are being forgotten and it does us all good to hold onto the truth of what St Paul is saying.

So often in life we find that when things are tough it is only the grace of God that has seen us through and our common life here in these parishes is no different. So I pray that whatever the future holds for us we never lose sight of the fact that with our lives fully committed to God and with the love of our fellow human beings at our centre there is always a way forward.

Many of us will be travelling far and wide on a summer break over the next few weeks and so I pray that all your travels and adventures bring you the refreshment and excitement that you need and I look forward to seeing you safely back with us soon.

God Bless and have a great summer,

Tom