Surprise #1: Homecoming is newHiraeth is a Welsh word which just doesn’t have an English translation. My best definition is ‘a longing or homesickness for a home that no longer exists, or a home that has never been’.Hiraeth is what I imagine many of the exiles would have felt, returning from Babylon to a home that no longer looked or functioned the same. Whilst the built environment would have been transformed, more significantly, their worship, community, every day life would also have felt so different.There are such strong echoes of this for us. As we come out of our exile in the form of lockdown, whilst our built environment might not have changed, we may rightly be apprehensive about whether our forms of worship, community, every day life will ever look the same again.We need to lament this. But we also need to channel our longing into the second part of hiraeth<font face="HelveticaNeue">: ‘the longing for a home that has never been’; that looks forwards not backwards - in anticipation of Haggai’s surprise message that ‘the latter glory of the house will be greater than the former’.</font>In <em>Little Gidding</em>, TS Eliot says ‘the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time’. It’s about seeing that whilst the landscape might be familiar, the Godscape is being transformed because He is doing a new thing; he calls us to see and join in.So embrace this Welsh concept of hiraeth: lament for the home and life that is unlikely to feel like it did: but long for the new one which shall surprise you as you open your eyes and behold it; the one whose glory, says Haggai, will be greater than the former.
The Last Word, a section where we feature an inspirational or memorable quote from some of the great figures in church life and beyond, has become a popular part of our weekly Pews News. So much so, that we're going to feature them in their own little section of our website so readers can refer to them when they want and with ease.You'll find them in the section marked The Last Word and predictably it's near the bottom of the main page index so it is, indeed, the Last Word.
Mothering Sunday is a time when we focus on several aspects of motherhood. Traditionally the view is that this is the Sunday when we return to our mother church - the place where we received the sacrament of baptism.We know we have Dunsfoldians around the world who often look back on their lives in our village with great fondness. While travelling "home" to Surrey may be out of the question due to the coronavirus lockdown, you can join us online via Zoom for Sunday's service celebrated by Reverend Ian Maslin.Just click on the link below to join some old friends and mark a day when we celebrate our mother church as well as our own mothers and the many inspirational mothers in the Bible, especially Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is, of course, the patron saint of our church.Click on this link to join us at 10am on Sunday.https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2746581498?pwd=WjlIcHBydjdOOEEzZ2tBVDNyMFBaZz09
