Dear Friends,

I am sending out the sermon and liturgy for Sunday early this week. That is because it is a celebration of Ascension which actually falls today and those who are not able to come to the Sunday service may like to mark it now. I have moved our celebration of it in church to Sunday because more people attend a Sunday service and I think Ascension is a really significant festival and I am keen we celebrate it as fully as possible to complete our Easter journey with the disciples who shared Jesus' earthly historical presence and take great joy in the event that enables Jesus to be present through all eternity and with us in our journey of faith now.

Today also marks the beginning of the Thy Kingdom Come international wave of prayer wave. My simple suggestion to each of us picks up a theme I have developed in my Ascension sermon: Jesus' historical ministry showed us God with us, present in the everyday places, the broken places, the local places of our lives with a desire to transform them with love:Can we share God's desire and pray each day for one thing in our own lives, for our friends or neighbourhoods which needs transformation, new hope and new life? Jesus' Ascension shows us that in him all earthly life is held in unity in God: Can we open ourselves to that unity and pray each day for one area of transformation in our whole world: perhaps for peace, for the care of the environment, for the healing of all nations from the pandemic...........

As I was preparing this I have been listening to the tragic reports of violence in Israel/Palestine. My prayers are for the peace, reconciliation and the healing of the deep wounds of the land which was Jesus' particular historical home. My prayers are that across the world we may all learn that our peace will come when we discover our common humanity unites us more deeply than any differences we have.
God bless,

Samantha