Dear Friends,

Today I presided at a Whitsun Wedding - on this beautiful sunlit afternoon the church in Lynton was a place of joy as the couple made their vows surrounded by their friends and family sharing in the celebration. The introduction to the marriage service reminds us that we see something of "Christ's love for his bride the Church" as we watch the commitment of a groom and bride made public. In the midst of the prayers in a marriage is an involving of the Holy Spirit to seal the bond of love. At the heart of Christ's relationship with the church is the gift of the Holy Spirit as its animating energy and the continued presence of the risen Christ in our midst.

In the reading from the book of Acts which gives us a picture of the disciples receiving the Holy Spirit we hear of the transformation of a whole crowd of diverse people, all able to recognise God's action in their own way.

There is a poem called The Whitsun Weddings by Philip Larkin. As with many of his poems there is a sense of scepticism and provocation in the poem as a whole, but there is a line which I really like. He is talking about all those he encounters just by chance on the train who have just come from wedding celebrations:

and it was nearly done, this frail

Travelling coincidence; and what it held

Stood ready to be loosed with all the power

That being changed can give

For me it works as a description of all that happened in Jerusalem that day. A wide group of people gathered for another purpose, encountering the transformation of the disciples, and being offered a new energy, a new outlook on life themselves.

I wonder what was loosed in their lives as they left that place?

I wonder what gifts of the Holy Spirit are ready to be loosed in our lives with all the power tha being changed can give?

God bless

Samantha