Dear friends,
Firstly, thank you to Ingrid and Sheila for contributing their thoughts to this regular column over the last two weeks while I was away. I’m sure you will agree it is lovely to hear from someone different to me! Rachel and I had a lovely week off and not only are we refreshed but so is the living room which we have now decorated. The colour is ‘celestial blue’, very appropriate for a vicarage. We look forward to welcoming you back to the Glebe in due course so you can see our handiwork… our rates are very reasonable!
‘Refreshing’ is where I think we are coming to in our journey through the pandemic. People are able to refresh their relationships by meeting in person, greater freedoms mean the refreshment of days out, holidays (at least a staycation) and changes of scenery. As ‘non-essential’ shops, restaurants and pubs re-open many people’s livelihoods are more secure and as the Covid figures go down the pressure on the NHS and other key services as well as on everyone’s mental health is eased.
In our life as a church we are at this stage of refreshing too. We have recently started a new outdoor informal service, ‘Church in the Wild’ on the first Sunday of the month at 11.15am and it has been lovely to welcome families along to the first two of these. We have also re-launched our Tiny Tots group and are looking at re-starting our Sunday school ‘Saints on Sunday’ from June, as well as a monthly All Age Eucharist when we all worship together at the 9.30 service. Thank you to everyone who is helping us to re-start and re-think and re-fresh these important parts of our life as a church family – and especially to those who have stepped forward as new volunteers.
Part of our mission as a church is to bring refreshment to the wider community. We seek to share the life-giving water of the God we see revealed in Jesus to others, in our worship, our beautiful open church, and in our life of service. Two important ways we do this are through our Foodbank and through our support for Christian Aid.
This year, the Christian Aid United Service is hosted by Christ Church at 10.30am this coming Sunday via Zoom.
Our Foodbank is a local expression of the same life-giving refreshment of Christ which Christian Aid puts into practice globally. We are currently seeking a volunteer coordinator for this project. If you think that you or someone you know could help in this way then please let me know.
Jesus said, ‘Those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I will give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life’ (John 4.14). May you know the refreshment of his love in your heart as you pray for and serve others.
With my love and prayers for you,
All Saints Vicarage,
Thursday 6th May 2021